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CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



CANADIAN WONDER TALES 

With Illustrations in Colour by George Sher- 
INGHAM and a Foreword by Sir William 
Peterson. Crown 4to. 

McGILL AND ITS STORY, 1821-1921 

Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 



THE BODLEY HEAD 




AND MANY OTHERS CAME, BUT THEY MET THE SAME FATE 



CANADIAN 
FAIRY TALES 

BY CYRUS MACMILLAN 

With Illustrations by MARCIA LANE FOSTER 
And an Introduction by JOHN GRIER HIBBEN 



Id 




NEW YORK 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 






First Published in 1922 

am 

itiH J ISZS 



Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frame and London 



TO 

THE MEMORY 

OF 

MY FATHER 

DESCENDANT OF CANADIAN PIONEERS 

WHO UPHELD THE OLD TRADITIONS 

AND USED THE ANCIENT SPEECH. 



INTRODUCTION 

PROFESSOR MACMILLAN has placed all lovers of 
fairy tales under a deep debt of obligation to him. 
The fairy tale makes a universal appeal both to 
old and young ; to the young because it is the natural world 
in which their fancy delights to range, and to the old because 
they are conscious again of the spirit of youth as they read 
such tales to their children and grandchildren over and over 
again, and rejoice in the illusion that after all there is not 
a great difference of age which separates the generations. 

The fairy tale makes this universal appeal because it 
deals with the elemental in our natures that is the same in 
every age and in every race. In the Canadian Tales which 
Professor Macmillan has so admirably gathered from Indian 
sources, we find the same types of character and scenes of 
adventure that we do in the tales of the German forests, of 
Scandinavia, England or France. 

There is in us all an instinctive admiration for the 
adventurous spirit of the fairy tale which challenges the 
might that is cruel and devastating, and for the good offices 
of the fairies which help to vindicate the cause of the noble 
in its conflict with the ignoble, right with wrong. 

vii 



viii CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

The origin of the fairy tale is to be traced always to 
the eariy stages of civilization, and it is very gratifying to 
be assured from time to time that man possesses certain 
natural impulses which spring from an inherent sense of 
honour, and the desire to redress the wrongs of the world. 

Professor Macmillan has been successful in presenting 
the Indian folk-lore in a most engaging manner. The stories 
have all the delightful charm and mystery of the Canadian 
forests ; they have penetrated into the heart of nature, 
hut also into the heart of man. 

JOHN GRIER HIBBEN. 



PREFACE 

THE tales in this collection, like those in "Canadian 
Wonder Tales," were gathered in various parts of 
Canada — ^by river and lake and ocean where sailors 
and fishermen still watch the stars ; in forest clearings where 
lumbermen yet retain some remnant of the old vanished 
voyageur life and where Indians still barter for their furs ; 
in remote country places where women spin while they speak 
with reverence of their fathers' days. The skeleton of each 
story has been left for the most part unchanged, although 
the language naturally differs somewhat from that of the 
story-tellers from whose Hps the writer heard them. 

It is too often forgotten that long before the time of 
Arthur and his Round Table these tales were known and 
treasured by the early inhabitants of our land. However 
much they may have changed in the oral passing from 
generation to generation the germ of the story goes back to 
very early days beyond the dawn of Canadian history. 
Canada is rich in this ancient lore. The effort to save it from 
obHvion needs no apology. Fairy hterature has an important 
place in the development of the child mind, and there is no 

ix 



X CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

better fairy lore than that of our own country. Through 
the eyes of the Indian story-teUer and the Indian dreamer, 
inheriting his tales from a romantic past, we can still look 
through " magic casements opening on the foam of perilous 
seas in fairy lands forlorn " ; we can stiU feel something of 
the atmosphere of that mysterious past in which our 
ancestors dwelt and laboured. The author's sincerest hope 
in pubhshing this volume is that to the children of to-day 
the traditions of our romantic Canadian past will not be lost 
in our practical Canadian present. 

McGn,L University, 
May, 1921. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

How Glooskap Made the Birds j 

Rabbit and the Grain Buyers ....... io 

Saint Nicholas and the Children lo 

The Fall of the Spider Man oj 

The Boy who was Called Thick-head 40 

Rabbit and the Indian Chief 47 

Great Heart and the Three Tests 58 

The Boy of the Red Twilight Sky 67 

How Raven Brought Fire to the Indians 73 

The Girl who Always Cried . . . . . . .82 

Ermine and the Hunter 89 

How Rabbit Deceived Fox g6 

The Boy and the Dragon 104 

Owl with the Great Head and Eyes 112 

The Tobacco Fairy from the Blue Hills 122 

Rainbow and the Autumn Leaves 127 

Rabbit and the Moon-Man joa 

The Children with One Eye 140 

The Giant with the Grey Feathers 146 

xi 



xii CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

PAGE 

The Cruel Stepmother 153 

The Boy who was Saved by Thoughts 160 

The Song-Bird and the Healing Waters 167 

The Boy who Overcame the Giants 172 

The Youth and the Dog-Dance 180 

Sparrow's Search for the Rain 187 

The Boy in the Land of Shadows .... . . 195 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR 

And many others came, but they met the same fate . . Frontispiece 

TO FACE 
PAGB 

And the children all came to him each asking for a boon . . . . 6 * 

So Duck crawled under the over-turned basket and sat very stiU . .14 

They stood for a time in the shadow of the great trees before the door and 

made ready to blow together . . . . . . . .24 

He came one day upon a man clad in scarlet sitting on the side of a rocky 

hill tying stones to his feet . . . . . . . .60 

The coat of Ermine was replaced by a sleek and shining white coat as 

spotless as the new snow in winter ....... 94 

Then Fox imtied the bag and let Rabbit out and got into the bag himself . 100 

The giant frowning angrily, the woman carrying the stick, and the boy 

leading the dog 148 

For some days the boy lay in terror in the nest . . . and far out on the 

ocean he could see great ships going by . . • . . . . 163 

" Strike hard," said the boy, " or it will do you no good " ... 178 

And they sat down together on the edge of the lake .... 182 

Then the old man gave the boy a large pipe and some tobacco . . . 198 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE 

TO FACE 
PAGE 

He said farewell to the sky-country and let himself down to earth by one 

of his own strands of yarn 32 

That night an old Wolf came through the forest in search of food . . 44 

xiii 



xiv CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

TO FACE 
PAGE 

He went to Beaver's house by the stream, hobbling along with a stick . 56 ^ 

And she makes to him an offering of tiny white feathers plucked from the 

breasts of birds . . . . . . . . . .70 

Then Raven asked Mole to try, but Mole said : " Oh no, I am better 

fitted for other work. My fur would all be singed " . . •78 

And with his magic power he changed her into a Fish-Hawk, and sent her 

out to the ocean 86 ' 

The man gave him another pair of mocassins in exchange for those he was 

wearing . . . 108 "' 

Wolf trotting along like a little horse, and Rabbit laughing to himself, sitting 

in the saddle ........... 116 

Suddenly a large flock of birds, looking like great black clouds, came flying 

from the blue hills .......... 124 

Throughout the long winter months Deer looked longingly for Rainbow . 128 

He sat very quiet, waiting for the man of the long foot to appear . . 136 ' 

The boy went into the forest with his bow and arrows. ... He had not 

gone far when he saw a fat young deer, which he killed . . . 142 

The bull rushed at the mountain with all his force ..... 158 

Then the young man lay down to sleep, and the Fox stood guard beside 

him ............. 170 



CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 



CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS 

ONCE upon a time long before the white men came 
to Canada there Hved a wicked giant who caused 
great trouble and sorrow wherever he went. Men 
called him Wolf- Wind. Where he was bom no man knows, 
but his home was in the Cave of the Winds, far in the north 
country in the Night-Night Land, and there men knew he 
was hiding on calm days when the sun was hot and the sea 
was still, and on quiet nights when not a leaf or a flower 
or a blade of grass was stirring. But whenever he appeared, 
the great trees cracked in fear and the Httle trees trembled 
and the flowers bent their heads close to the earth, trying 
to hide from his presence. Often he came upon them without 
warning and with little sign of his coming. And then the 
com fell flat never to rise again, and tall trees crashed in 
the forest, and the flowers dropped dead because of their 
terror; and often the great waters grew white and moaned 
or screamed loudly or dashed themselves against the rocks 
trying to escape from Wolf-Wind. And in the darkness of 

1 B 



2 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

the night when Wolf- Wind howled, there was great fear upon 
aU the earth. 

It happened once in those old times that Wolf- Wind was 
in a great rage, and he went forth to kill and devour all who 
dared to come in his path. It chanced in that time that 
many Indian families were living near the sea. The men 
and women were fishing far off the coast. They were 
catching fish to make food for the winter. They went very 
far away in smaU canoes, for the sea had long been still and 
they thought there was no danger. The httle children were 
alone on shore. Suddenly as the sun went down, without 
a sign of his coming, out of the north came Wolf-Wind in 
his great rage looking for prey, and roaring loudly as he 
came. " I am Wolf- Wind, the giant," he howled, " cross 
not my path, for I wiU kiU all the people I meet, and eat 
them aU up." His anger only grew as he stalked along, and 
he splashed and tossed the waters aside in his fury as he came 
down upon the fishermen and fisher-women far out to sea. 
The fishers had no time to get out of his reach or to paddle 
to the shore, so quick was Wolf- Wind's coming, and the giant 
caught them in his path and broke up their boats and killed 
them all. AU night long he raged over the ocean looking 
for more fishers. 

In the morning Wolf-Wind's anger was not yet spent. 
Far away in front of him he saw the httle children of the 
fishers pla5ring on the shore. He knew they were alone, for 



HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS 3 

he had killed their fathers and mothers. He resolved to catch 
them and kill them too, and after them he went, still in a 
great rage. He went quickly towards the land, roaring as 
he went and dashing the waters against the rocks in his 
madness. As he came near the beach he howled in his anger, 
*' I will catch you and kill you all and eat you and bleach 
your bones upon the sand." But the children heard him and 
they ran away as fast as they could, and they hid in a cave 
among the great rocks and placed a big stone at the mouth 
of the cave and Wolf-Wind could not get in. He howled 
loudly at the door all day and all night long, but the stone 
was strong and he could not break it down. Then he went 
on his way stiU very angry and still roaring, and he howled, 
" I will come back and catch you yet. You cannot escape 
from me." 

The children were very frightened and they stayed long 
in the cave after Wolf- Wind had gone, for far away they 
could still hear him howling and crashing in the forest. Then 
they came out. They knew that Wolf- Wind had killed their 
fathers and mothers on the sea. They ran away into the 
forest, for they thought that there they would be safe. They 
went to the Willow- Willow Land where they found a pleasant 
place with grass and flowers and streams. And between 
them and the north country where Wolf- Wind lived were 
many great trees with thick leaves which they knew would 
protect them from the giant. 



4 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

But one day Wolf-Wind, true to his promise, came again 
in a rage to find them. He came into the land killing aU 
he met in his path. But he could not catch the children, 
for the trees with their thick leaves kept him away. They 
heard him howling in the forest far distant. For many days 
in the late summer he tried to find them but their home was 
close to the trees, and the great branches spread over them 
and the thick leaves saved them, and only the sun from the 
south, coming from the Simimer-Flower country, could look 
in upon them. Try as he could with aU his might old Woh- 
Wind could not harm them although he knew that they were 
there ; and they were always safe while they lived in the 
Willow- Willow Land. 

Wolf- Wind was more angry than ever because of his failiu"e, 
for he liked to feed on his little children, and rage knew no 
bounds. He swore that he would have vengeance on the 
trees. So he came back again and he brought with him to 
aid him another giant from the north country who had with 
him a strange and powerful charm, the Charm of the Frost. 
And the two giants tried to kill the trees that had saved the 
Httle children. But over many of the trees they had no 
power, for when they came, the trees only laughed and merely 
swayed and creaked and said, " You cannot harm us ; we 
are strong, for we came at first from the Night-Night Land 
in the far north country, and over us the Charm of the Frost 
has no power." These were the Spruce and the Fir, the 



HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS 5 

Hemlock and the Pine and the Cedar. But on the other trees 
Wolf-Wind had vengeance as he had vowed. One night 
when the harvest moon was shining in the sky he came without 
warning, and with the help of the giant bearing the Charm 
of the Frost he kiUed all the leaves that had kept him from 
the children, and threw them to the ground. One after one 
the leaves came off from the Beech and the Birch, the Oak 
and the Maple, the Alder and the WiUow. Some feU quickly, 
some fluttered slowly down, and some took a long time in 
dying. But at last the trees stood bare and cold against 
the sky and there was stillness and sadness in the forest. 
And Wolf- Wind laughed and played in silence through the 
leafless branches with the giant from Night-Night Land. 
And he said, " Now I have overcome the leaves that kept 
me away, and now when I please I can kill the children." 
But the children only moved closer to the strong and sturdy 
trees that had come at first from the far north country and 
over which the Charm of the Frost had no power, and Wolf- 
Wind could not reach them and they were stiU for ever safe 
from the giants. 

The children were very sad when they saw what Wolf- 
Wind had done to their friends and protectors, the trees. 
Summer had gone back to the Southland following as she 
always did the Rainbow Road to her home in the Wilder- 
ness of Flowers. It was lonely now in the forest and silent ; 
there was not a whisper in the trees ; there were no 



6 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

leaves, for it was autumn and Wolf-Wind had killed them aU. 

At last it came to that time of year when Glooskap, who 
iTiled upon the earth and was very great in those days, gave 
his yearly gifts to little children. And he came into the land 
on a sled drawn by his faithful dogs to find out for himself 
what the children wished for. And the children aU came to 
him each asking for a boon. Now Glooskap had great power 
upon the earth in that old time. He could always do what 
he willed. And the httle children whom Wolf-Wind had 
tried to harm in his rage came to Glooskap, the Magic Master 
of gifts, and they were all very sad because the leaves had 
gone. 

" What do you wish ? " said Glooskap. " We wish nothing 
for ourselves," said the children, " but we ask that the leaves 
that were kiUed by Wolf- Wind because they saved us from 
his rage be brought back to life and put back again in their 
old home in the trees." Glooskap was silent for a long time 
and he sat and thought as was his custom, and he smoked 
hard at his mighty pipe, for he was a great smoker. Now 
in that time there w^ere no Httle forest birds upon the eailh, 
for Glooskap had not yet brought them into being. There 
were only the birds that dwelt near the sea and over whom 
Wolf-Wind had no power — Sea-guU and Crane, Wild-duck 
and Loon, Kingfisher and Brant and Curlew. These only 
laughed at the giant in his rage and screamed in mockery 
as they flew from him and hid when he came, among the 



I 




AND THE CHILDREN ALL CAME TO HIM EACH ASKING FOR A BOON 



HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS 7 

shallows or the rocks or the thick grass in the marshes. And 
there were also the sturdy birds that dwelt with men and 
worked for them, giving them eggs and food. These were 
Hen and Goose and Duck and Wild Turkey. They gave 
men food, but they were not fair to look upon ; they waddled 
along and could not fly well and they made no sweet music 
upon the earth, for their song was a quack and a cackle. 

Glooskap decided to bring other birds into the world, 
not to give food but to bring happiness to the children on 
the days when simimer dwells in the land, with their pretty 
feathers and their pleasant songs. So after he had smoked 
long in silence he hit upon a plan. And he said to the children 
asking for their yearly gifts, " I cannot bring back to the 
trees the leaves that Wolf- Wind has killed and stripped off, 
for it is now too late. But I will take the fallen leaves and 
change them into little birds. And the birds shall never 
forget how they were bom. When autumn comes they shall 
go with summer far away to the Summer-Flower Land, but 
in the spring-time they shall always come back and they 
shall live as close as they can to the leaves from which they 
have sprung. And they shall nest, most of them, in the trees 
under the leaves, and even those that nest in the grass shall 
love the trees and linger in them. And they shaU all be 
beautiful in colour like the leaves that gave them birth ; and 
they shaU have power to rest at times upon the air Hke a 
leaf fluttering ; and the voice of the air and the laughing 



8 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

waters shaU be in their throats and they shaU sing sweet 
songs for httle children. And I give the children charge 
over them to keep them from harm just as the leaves which 
gave them birth have saved the httle children from the giants. 
And I will give the trees that Wolf- Wind has stripped power 
to bring forth new leaves every spring-time so that when 
Summer comes back from the Wilderness of Flowers the 
trees shall not be bare. And although Wolf- Wind may strip 
them off when the Giant of the Frost comes with him from 
the Night-Nighr Land they shaU always be replaced in the 
spring-time. And I will take away much of Wolf-Wind's 
power so that he can no longer harm httle children as 
wickedly as he has done before." 

Glooskap waved his magic wand as was his custom, and 
at once great flocks of Uttle birds sprang from the ground 
where the fallen leaves had lain. And they twittered and 
sang in a great chorus and flew back to the trees. They 
were of beautiful colour^ hke the leaves that had given them 
birth. There were Robin Red-breasts and Thrushes aU brown 
and red, from the red and brown leaves of the Oak. And 
there were Finches and Humming-birds all yellow and green 
and brown from the leaves of the Alder and the WiUow, and 
they glowed like willows in the sun-light and fluttered like 
a leaf upon the air. There were YeUowbirds and Canadian 
Warblers from the golden "Beech and Birch leaves. And 
there were Scarlet Tanagers and Orioles and Grosbeaks all 



HOW GLOOSKAP MADE THE BIRDS 9 

of changing colours, red and purple and brown, from the 
leaves of the Canadian Maple. And they all sang to the 
children and^he children were all very happy again. 

Then Glooskap sent the little birds all away to a warm 
country until the rule of the Giant of the Frost from the 
Night-Night Land was over, for it was winter in all the land 
and it was very cold. But in the spring-time the httle birds 
always come back from the Simimer-Flower Land. And they 
build their nests among the trees as close as they can to their 
kindred, the leaves from which they came. And all day 
long they sing ^ among the leaves for little children. At day- 
break they wake the children with their choir of dawn, and 
at twilight they lisp and twitter to lull the children to sleep. 
And at night they hide among the leaves from Wolf- Wind 
and are very still with never a twitter or a song. For they 
do not forget that they are the children's gift from Glooskap 
and that they came from the leaves stripped from the trees 
by Wolf-Wind because the leaves saved the Httle children 
from the giant long ago. 



i 



RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS 

ONCE long ago when the Indians lived in Canada 
before the white men came, Rabbit was very 
lazy. He had worked long for Glooskap, the 
great ruler of the people, as a forest guide, but his toil was 
not appreciated or rewarded. He saw all the other animals 
idling their time away, taking their ease all day long, and 
doing nothing but fiUing their bellies with food, and sleep- 
ing aU the afternoon in the hot sunshine. And he said, 
" Why should I work for other people when nobody works 
for me ? I will take mine ease like all the other animals." 
So he sulked in his little house for a long time and could 
not be coaxed or driven to do any work. But as he was a 
lonely fellow who always lived by himself with very few 
friends in the world except little children, he soon got tired 
of this lazy life. For by nature he was industrious and 
energetic and he always liked to be doing something or 
prowling alone in the forest. So he said, " I must find some 
work to do or I shall surely lose my wits. But it must be 
labour that brings profit to myself and not to other people." 
For a long time Rabbit puzzled his brains thinking on 

10 



RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS ii 

a business or a profession to follow. But nothing seemed 
to be to his Hking. At last one day he saw some Indians 
trading skins and knives. One was selling and others were 
buying and they seemed to be making a great deal of money 
without doing very much work. Rabbit thought that here 
indeed was an easy way to make a living. Then he saw 
Duck coming along carrying a basket of eggs. He said to 
Duck, " How do you get along in the world ? You seem to 
do nothing but eat and cackle and swim in the pond. You 
never seem to work." And Duck said, " I lay eggs and sell 
them in exchange for corn. Why don't you lay eggs ? It 
is all very easy." But Rabbit knew that Duck was only 
laughing at him, and that he was not meant to make a living 
in that way. 

Then he met Bee on the forest path and he said, " How 
do you make a living, you wandering bee ? You do nothing 
but gad about all day long, going from flower to flower dressed 
in your good clothes of yellow and black and always singing 
your tuneless song ? " And Bee said, " I make honey and 
wax and sell them. I have a great store for sale now. Why 
don't you do as I do ? I am always happy. I always sing 
at my work, and what's more, my song is not tuneless. And 
just for your impudence, take that." And so saying he 
stung Rabbit on the nose and went on his way, singing his 
droning song. Rabbit rubbed his nose in the earth to ease 
his pain and he swore vengeance on Bee, for he knew that 



12 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

Bee too was only laughing at him. But he could think of 
no way to make an easy living, for he had nothing to sell 
but his coat, and he could not very weU barter that, for winter 
would soon be coming on. He was very angry and troubled 
and he envied Duck and Bee their good fortune because of 
their eggs and honey and wax. 

At last he thought of the Indians he had watched buying 
and selHng skins. " I have it," he cried, " I have it. I will 
become a great merchant. I will be a great trader. I will 
live on a farm where they grow com and vegetables, and I 
wiU steal them and seU them to the other animals and thereby 
make a great store of money. I shall be very rich in a short 
time." So, very happy, he went to a field near which was 
a vegetable garden. And in it were growing Indian com 
and aU kinds of grain which he knew the other birds and 
animals would gladly buy. So he made a sign and put it 
up in front of his house, and it said, " Buy Rabbit's com, 
the best in all the land; it wiU grow without rain; there 
is only a smaU quantity left. Orders taken here." Then 
he sat in his house and waited. 

Soon many buyers began to arrive. They were curious, 
and they wanted to see what kind of a merchant Rabbit 
would make. Rabbit explained to them that he was only 
an agent, that they must pay him their money, and he would 
take it to the farmer, and deHver their grain at his house 
one week from that day. The buyers paid him the money 






I 



RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS 13 

and went away, for they were afraid the farmer would kill 
them if they went themselves for the com. They left a great 
store of money with Rabbit. That night when the moon 
rose over the hiUs Rabbit went to the field of com nearby. 
But the farmer had spied him thieving that afternoon, and 
he had placed around his com a fence of strong netting which 
poor Rabbit could not get through. And he had also placed 
around the field many watch-dogs which growled and snarled 
and frightened thieves away. Night after night Rabbit tried 
to slip into the field, but without success, and the week passed 
and stiU he had no com for the customers who, he knew, 
would soon be arriving for their goods. And meanwhile he 
had spent aU their money and he knew they would aU fall 
upon him and kiU him if he failed to keep his word and deliver 
their purchases. 

At last when the day agreed on arrived, he saw his 
customers coming for their grain. And he hoped that his 
tricks would save him as they had saved him many times 
before. He sat in his yard playing his flute, when Earth- 
Worm, the first customer arrived. " Good day," said Rabbit. 
*' Good day," said Earth- Worm, " I have come for my com, 
for a week has gone by." " Very good," said Rabbit, " but 
first we shall have dinner. It will be ready in a few minutes. 
You must be hungry after your long journey." As they sat 
waiting for their dinner they saw Duck, another customer, 
waddling up the path with her basket on her neck. And 



14 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

Rabbit said, " WiU not old Duck who comes here want to 
eat you up ? " And Earth-Worm said, " Yes, yes, where 
shaU I hide ? " and he was much excited. " Hide under 
this clam-sheU," said Rabbit. So Earth-Worm crawled under 
the clam-sheU and sat very stiU, trembling for his life. 

When Duck arrived. Rabbit said, " Good morning." 
" Good morning, Mr. Merchant," said Duck, wishing to be 
polite. " I have come for my com, for it is the appointed 
day of delivery." " True, true," said Rabbit, " but first 
we shall have dinner. It wiU be ready in a few minutes. 
It will be an honour for me to have you dine with me." As 
they sat waiting for their dinner, Rabbit said, " Would you 
care to eat an Earth-Worm before your dinner ? It would 
be a good appetizer for you." And Duck said, " Thank 
you very much. I am very fond of Earth- Worms." Rabbit 
lifted the clam-sheU and poor Earth-Worm was quickly gobbled 
up by Duck. And Rabbit, laughing to himself, thought, 
" Now I am getting rid of my customers." 

As Rabbit and Duck sat talking, they saw Fox trotting 
up the path. He was another customer coming for his com. 
And Rabbit said courteously, " Madam, I see your old enemy 
Fox approaching. He wiU probably wish to eat you up; 
you had better hide." And Duck with her feathers aU ruffled 
with excitement said, " Yes, yes, where shaU I hide ? " And 
Rabbit said, " Hide under this basket." So Duck crawled 
under the over-turned basket and sat very still. 




so DUOK CRAWLED UNDER THE OVER- 
TURNED BASKET AND SAT VERY STILL 



RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS 15 

Fox soon came in and said, " Good day. Rabbit. I have 
come for my corn, for I am in sore need of it to catch chickens, 
and the seven days have passed/' " You are very punctual," 
said Rabbit, " but fiist let us have dinner. It will be ready 
in a few minutes. It wiU make you stronger to carry your 
heavy load." As they sat waiting for their dinner. Rabbit 
said, " Listen, Fox. Would you care to eat a fat Duck now ? 
It would be a tasty bit for you before you dine." And Fox 
said, " You are very kind. I always Hke to eat a Duck before 
my dinner." Rabbit knocked over the basket and Fox 
quickly devoured poor Duck until not a feather remained. 
And Rabbit laughed to himself and said, " Surely I am getting 
rid of my customers very easily." 

As Rabbit and Fox sat talking over old times in the 
forest, they saw Bear coming lumbering up the path, tossing 
his head from side to side, and sniffing the air. And Rabbit 
said, " Bear is in a bad temper to-day. I wonder what can 
be the cause." And Fox said, " This morning I stole all 
his honey and he saw me running away." " He scents you 
here," said Rabbit, '* will he not kiU you if he finds you? 
Perhaps you ought to hide." " Yes, yes," said Fox, " but 
where shall I hide ? " " Hide in this box," said Rabbit, and 
Fox sprang into the box, and Rabbit closed down the Hd. 

When Bear arrived he said gruffiy, for he was in a bad 
temper, " Good day. Rabbit. I have come for my com and 
I must have it quickly, for I must be on my way. It is the 



i6 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

appointed time." "It is indeed the appointed time," said 
Rabbit, " but first we shall have dinner. It will be ready in a 
few minutes and I never let a wayfarer leave my house with- 
out first taking nourishment. I have to-day a dish of fresh fish 
which youHke very weU, and we have never yet dined together." 
And Bear agreed to wait and his gruffness left him at the 
thought of his good meal, for he was a great fish-eater, and 
he talked pleasantly. Then Rabbit said, " I have a secret to 
teU you. Let me whisper it . " He put his mouth close to Bear's 
ear and said, " Old Fox, the sly thief who stole all your honey 
this morning is hiding in the box by your side. He came here 
to boast about his theft and he laughed loudly to me as he told 
me how easily you were cheated. He called you Lack-Brains." 
Bear was very emgry and at once he knocked the lid from 
the box and kiUed Fox with one blow of his powerful paw. 
And Rabbit said to himself, " What luck I am having ; there 
is another of my customers gone." But he wondered how 
he was to get rid of Bear, and he scratched his head in thought. 
While Bear and Rabbit sat talking, they saw Rabbit's 
last customer, the Hunter, coming along. Bear would have 
run away, but it was too late. " Will the Hunter not want 
to kiU you ? " said Rabbit, glad to think that here was the 
end of poor Bear. " Indeed he will," said Bear. " Oh dear, 
oh dear, where shall I hide ? " " Hide under my bed in 
my house," said Rabbit. Poor Bear quickly dashed into 
the house and crawled under Rabbit's bed with great difliculty 



RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS 17 

for he was very fat and the bed was very low and he had to 

lay himself out flat on the floor, but he was comfortable in 

the thought that he would soon escape. When Hunter 

arrived he said, " Good day. Rabbit, I have come for my com, 

for my children need bread." " You shall have it," said 

Rabbit. " But first we must have a bite to eat. I have not 

very much to offer you, but I can give you in a few minutes 

some hot pancakes and fresh maple syrup." The Hunter 

was well pleased with the thought of such a good meal and 

he said he would be glad to wait. Then Rabbit said, " Would 

you like some bear meat for your children, and a good warm 

bear skin for your hearth ? " And the Hunter said, " Indeed 

I would. But in these days such luxuries are hard to find." 

And Rabbit said, " Oh no, they are not ; under my bed in 

my house, a good fat bear is hiding. He is lying flat on his 

back, and you can easily kiU him." The Hunter hurried 

to the house, and sure enough there he found Bear hiding 

under the bed, flat upon his back. He killed him with a 

blow and skinned him and cut him up into small pieces and 

put the meat and the skin into a bag to take home to his 

children. But while he was about it, Rabbit slipped away 

into the forest, saying to himself, " Now I have got rid of 

all my customers and I am safe. But the life of a merchant 

is not to my liking. I will not be a trader any more. I will 

gather com for myself, but not to sell to others." And he 

ran quickly away and hid himself in a dense thicket. 

C 



i8 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

When the Hunter went to look for Rabbit, he could not 
find him, nor was he able to find his grain. And although 
he thought he had fared pretty weU by getting so much bear 
meat, he swore vengeance on Rabbit for his deceit, and to 
this day he searches for him, and if he meets him, he will 
not let him escape. And Rabbit fives by himself and keeps 
away from the Hunter as far as he can, for he fears him because 
of the trick he played upon him in the olden days. 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 

TWO little children lived with their old grandmother 
in a remote place in the Canadian forest. They 
were twin children — a boy and a girl, Pierre and 
EsteUe by name — and except for their dress it was not easy 
to tell them apart. Their father and mother had died in 
the spring-time, and in the summer they had left their old 
home because of its many sad memories and had gone to live 
with their old grandmother in a new home elsewhere. In 
this new home in the forest where they now lived they were 
very poor, but they were not unhappy. Times were hard, 
and there was very httle food to be had no matter how well 
their old grandmother worked ; but they caught fish in the 
streams and gathered berries and fruit and birds' eggs on 
the wooded hiUs, and somehow throughout the summer they 
kept themselves from want. But when late autumn came 
and the streams were frozen over and the berries were aU 
gone and there were no eggs, for the birds had aU flown 
south, they were often hungry because they had so Httle to 
eat. 

Their grandmother worked so hard to provide for herself 

19 



20 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

and the children that at last she fell very sick. For several 
days she could not leave her bed. And she said, " I want 
meat broth to make me weU and I must have good meat to 
make it. If I do not get meat I can have no broth, and if 
I do not get broth I shall not get well, and if I do not get well 
I shall die, and if I die you two children will surely starve 
and die too. So meat and meat alone can save us all from 
starvation and death." So the two children, to keep them- 
selves and their grandmother alive, set out one morning in 
search of meat to make the broth. They lived far from other 
people and they did not know where to go, but they followed 
the forest path. The snow lay deep on the ground and 
sparkled brightly in the sunlight. The children had never 
before been away from home alone and every sight was of 
great interest to them. Here and there a rabbit hopped 
over the snow, or a snowbird hovered and twittered overhead, 
all looking for food hke the children. And there were hoUy- 
berries growing in many places, and there was mistletoe 
hanging from the trees. And Pierre when he saw the holly- 
berries and the mistletoe said, " Saint Nicholas wiU be soon 
here, for the trees are dressed and ready for his coming." And 
Estelle said, " Yes, Saint Nicholas wiU be soon here." And 
they were both very glad thinking of his coming. 

As they went along in the afternoon, they came upon 
an old man sitting at the door of a smaU house of spruce- 
boughs under the trees close to the forest path. He was busy 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 21 

making whistles, whittling willow wands with a knife and 
tapping gently on the bark until the bark loosened from the 
wood and shpped easily off. The children stood and watched 
him at his strange work, for he had merry twinkling eyes, 
and a kindly weather-beaten face, and thick white hair, and 
they were not afraid. 

" HeUo," said the old man. 

" HeUo," said Pierre, " why are you making wiUow 
whistles ? " 

" I am making them for Saint Nicholas," said the old man ; 
"he is coming soon for his yearly visit ; indeed he is already 
in the land ; when he makes his rounds he always gives 
whistles, among other things, to good children, and I must 
have a great store of them ready for him when he comes, 
for there are many children to supply." 

Then he went on whitthng busily with his knife. The 
children watched him for a long time in silence, and they 
thought what a fine thing it must be to work Like the old man 
for Saint Nicholas, in his little house of boughs under the 
forest trees. Then the old man said, " You are very small 
children ; what are you seeking so far away from people ? " 
And Estelle answered, " Our old grandmother is very sick, 
and we are looking for meat to make broth to make her well." 
The old man was sorry he had no meat, for he hved on other 
food. He told them that some distance farther along there 
was a butcher who always kept meat ; but the butcher, he 



22 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

said, was a very wicked fellow and sometimes little children 
who entered his shop never came out again. The children 
were very frightened when they heard what the old man 
said and they wondered if they had better go back home. 
But the old man thought for a long time in silence as he 
whittled his willow wands, and then he said, " I wiU give 
you each a whistle, and when you blow it. Saint Nicholas 
will always hear it ; you must never blow it except when 
you are in great trouble or distress, and when Saint Nicholas 
hears it he wiU know that you are coming to grief or that 
harm is already upon you and he will come himself or send 
some one to your assistance. But you must blow only one 
blast. The whistle should be given only by Saint Nicholas 
himself when he comes at holly-time into the land. But 
you are good children and your old grandmother is sick, and 
you are trying to make her well, and I know that Saint Nicholas 
wiU not say that I have done wrong." So he gave the 
children each a whistle, and then fear left them, for they knew 
they could now come to no harm if they had the aid of Saint 
Nicholas. 

It was growing late in the afternoon and the children 
set out on their way to find the wicked butcher. But they 
had many misgivings, and as they went on they grew faint 
of heart, for they wondered if the old man had told them the 
truth about the whistles or if he was in reality a secret agent 
of the wicked butcher trying to lure them to their death. 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 23 

They resolved to search for meat elsewhere and to keep away 
from the butcher's shop. 

For a long time they searched, but without success. 
There was no meat to be had in aU the land at any of the 
places they stopped to ask. Soon they came in sight of the 
butcher's shop. They were very frightened. But the sun 
had already gone down behind the trees, and night was 
coming on, and they had stiU no meat. And they knew 
that if their old grandmother was to get well she must have 
meat to make broth. The shop, too, looked very pleasant 
and attractive in the cold winter evening. Warm Hght was 
shining from a fire through the door, and in the windows 
were sausages, and fat birds, and big yeUow pumpkins and 
cakes with red berries on the top. The children were hungry 
and wished for something to eat by the warm shop fire. They 
decided to enter the shop notwithstanding their fear, to buy 
some food, and to get meat for their grandmother's broth 
as quickly as they could. But before they entered the shop 
they thought it would be weU, in order to be safe, to blow 
a blast on their whistle as the old man had told them so that 
Saint Nicholas would know that they were in dread of harm. 
They stood for a time in the shadow of the great trees before 
the door and made ready to blow together. Pierre gave the 
signal and blew a long soft blast. But Estelle could not get 
her whistle from her pocket and Pierre had finished his blast, 
all out of breath, before she was ready to blow. '' Don't 



24 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

blow now," he said, " you are just like a girl, always too late." 
But blow she would, as the old man had told her, and before 
Pierre could stop her she blew a long soft blast on her whistle. 
Pierre was very cross, for he thought that now no good could 
come of it, as two blasts had sounded, but with his sister he 
entered the butcher's shop. 

The wicked butcher was in his shop, but not another 
person was about the place. It was all very quiet. The 
man was very glad to see the children and he seated them 
by the warm fire, and gave them food, and although he shut 
the door tight behind them, their fear soon vanished. After 
they had eaten weU and were warm again, they asked for meat 
to make broth for their old grandmother, and the butcher 
said he would give them plenty of good meat although it 
was very scarce in aU the land. There was a barrel standing 
in one comer ; in another comer was a large hogshead reaching 
almost to the ceihng, and the butcher said that both of these 
were full of meat. 

Now the butcher was really the friend and partner of a 
wicked giant who lived in the forest. The giant's greatest 
dehght was to eat little children. He liked no meal so well 
as a meal of httle children, two at a time, pickled first in 
brine. He ate them always when he could get them, but he 
was not always successful in his search, for children were 
scarce in the land. He was a great hunter and he was able 
to kill many animals in the forest and to secure much meat. 




THEY STOOD FOR A TIME IN THE SHADOW 0= THE GREAT TREES 
BEFORE THE DOOR AND MADE READY TO BLOW TOGETHER 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 25 

so great was his strength, and once a week regularly he brought 
a great load of meat to the butcher and traded it for any 
little children the butcher managed to entice into his shop. 
So the butcher got much meat at Uttle cost. And the old man 
of the house of boughs was right when he said that many 
little children who entered the shop never came out again. 

The butcher was very glad when he saw the two pretty 
little children. He was expecting the giant that evening 
on his weekly visit, and he thought gleefuUy of the great 
load of meat he would get from the giant in exchange for 
the children, for he would ask a big price, and he knew the 
giant would give aU the meat he had for so good a meal. And 
he thought too of aU the money he would get for the giant's 
load of meat. So he resolved to kill the children and pickle 
them in brine to await the giant's coming. 

When the children had finished their meal and had warmed 
themselves by the fire they made ready to go home and they 
asked for their meat. The butcher said he would get it for 
them. They looked up at the shelves, laden with more food 
than they had ever seen before — ^hams and cabbages and 
strings of onions. And the little children said, " There are 
good onions up there ; we wiU buy some and take them 
home to our grandmother to put in her broth." The butcher 
said, " There are many kinds of onions in the box on the 
high sheH. You must pick out the kind you want. I wiU 
lift you up to the shelf so that you can see for yourselves." 



26 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

So he caught them each by the coat between the shoulders, 
and because of his gi'eat strength he Hfted them high until 
they could look into the box and pick out the onions they 
wanted. As he took them down he thrust them strsdght 
out from his body at arm's length and held them there and 
they laughed because of his great strength. Then he brought 
them together with terrible force so that their heads struck 
one against the other and they were stunned by the cruel 
blow. Then he threw them head first into the barrel in the 
comer which was filled with brine, not with meat as he had 
said, and he left them there to pickle weU. He was greatly 
pleased with the fine load of meat he would get in exchange 
from the giant, who, he knew, would appear before many 
minutes had passed. 

Soon the giant arrived. He carried on his back a great 
load of meat and he also drew a sled heavily laden with many 
dressed carcasses of animals he had killed. " What cheer 
for me to-night and what fortune ? " he said to the butcher 
as he entered the warm shop with his load. And the butcher 
said, " Good cheer and fine fortune. I have a good fat pair 
for you to-night already pickling in the brine." Then he 
uncovered the barrel in the comer and showed the giant the 
two little children sticking head first in the pickle. The 
giant smacked his fat Hps and chuckled and rubbed his great 
hands, so pleased was he with the sight of so good a meal. 
And he said, " We will let them steep well in the brine until 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 27 

to-morrow. I always like them very salt." They covered 
up the barrel, and then they bargained about the purchase 
of the meat. 

The giant agreed to give the butcher aU his meat in 
exchange for the children. Then they sat by the fire drinking 
and eating until far on into the night. And the giant said 
that before they went to bed he would take another look 
at the children to see how they were pickhng. So they went 
and uncovered the barrel. 

Now it chanced that Saint Nicholas was in the land at 
that time, as the old man of the House-of-boughs had said. 
He had come into the land to bring his yearly gifts to Httle 
children. In the evening he was many miles away from the 
butcher's shop. But he heard the long soft blast of a whistle, 
borne on the stiU evening wind. He knew it to be one of 
his own whistles, and it told him that httle children were 
in danger. But it was followed by another soft blast — 
the late blast of EsteUe's whistle — and the two blasts meant 
that the danger was not yet very near to the children, that 
indeed it was far off, so he thought that there was no need 
to hurry to the children's aid. Moreover, Saint Nicholas was 
just then leaving tiny doUs for Httle babies in many little 
houses in the forest and he decided to take his time and finish 
the giving of all these gifts before he set out to the place 
from which the whistle-blast had come. 

At last he was able to go on his way. The snow lay deep 



28 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

in the forest, and travelling was hard, but the white winter 
moon was shining, and the path was bright and Saint Nicholas 
moved along quickly on his snow-shoes. Far on in the night 
he reached the butcher's shop from which he knew the children's 
note of fear had come. As he entered the shop, the giant 
and the butcher were just taking their last look before going 
to bed at the children sticking in the barrel of brine. They 
did not know Saint Nicholas, but when they saw him they 
quickly placed the cover on the barrel and were very much 
confused. Saint Nicholas was suspicious that they were 
about some wickedness, and he knew well that in some way 
or other the barrel was connected with the dreaded harm of 
which the children's whistle had told him, and he thought 
that perhaps the children were hidden in it. So he said, " I 
have come for meat. I want meat that has been pickled in 
brine. I should like a piece from that barrel." But the butcher 
said, "It is not good meat. I have better meat in the inner 
room, and I wiU get it for you." So the butcher and Saint 
Nicholas entered the inner room and closed the door behind 
them while the giant sat on the barrel in the comer, trying 
to hide it with his great fat legs. 

In the inner room was a barrel filled with brine, but with 
only a smaU piece of meat at the bottom. Saint Nicholas 
said he would take that piece. The butcher bent far into 
the barrel to reach down in search of the meat. But as he 
did so, Saint Nicholas picked him up by the legs and pushed 



SAINT NICHOLAS AND THE CHILDREN 29 

him head first into the barrel of brine. He spluttered and 
kicked, but he stuck fast in the barrel, and could not get 
out. Saint Nicholas placed the cover on the barrel, with a 
great weight on top of it, and that was the end of the wicked 
butcher. 

Then Saint Nicholas returned to the shop where the giant 
was waiting, still sitting on the barrel. He told the giant 
that he wanted a piece of meat that lay in the bottom of 
the large hogshead of pickle in the other comer. He asked 
the giant to get it for him, as the hogshead was so high that 
neither he nor the butcher could reach down into it. 

The giant bent far into the hogshead and began groping 
for the meat at the bottom. Saint Nicholas took a large 
bone that lay on the floor, and standing on a box beside the 
hogshead he struck the giant a powerful blow on the head. 
The giant was only slightly stunned, but in his surprise he 
lost his balance, and fell head first into the brine. He yeUed 
and kicked for a time, but his huge shoulders stuck fast. 
Saint Nicholas covered the hogshead, leaving the giant sticking 
fast in the pickle, and that was the end of the giant. 

Then Saint Nicholas uncovered the barrel in the comer 
into which he had seen the butcher and the giant looking 
when he had first entered the shop. There were the two 
children standing on their heads in the pickle with their feet 
sticking out at the top. He caught them by the legs and 
pulled them out and by his magic power he soon brought 



30 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

them back to life. He gave them food and warmed them 
by the fire and soon they were none the worse for their hour 
in the barrel of briae. 

Then he gave them meat and brought them back to their 
grandmother. And they made broth for her and soon made 
her weU, and they were all happy agaia. And the land was 
troubled no more by giants, for Saint Nicholas never again 
allowed great harm to come to Kttle children if they always 
kept his whistle near them and blew softly upon it when 
they were in trouble or distress. 



THE FALL OF THE SPIDER MAN 

IN olden times the Spider Man lived in the sky-country. 
He dwelt in a bright Httle house all by himself, where 
he weaved webs and long flimsy ladders by which 
people went back and forth from the sky to the earth. The 
Star-people often went at night to earth where they roamed 
about as fairies of Hght, doing good deeds for women and 
little children, and they always went back and forth on the 
ladder of the Spider Man. The Spider Man had to work 
very hard, weaving his webs, and spinning the yam from 
which his ladders were made. One day when he had a short 
breathing-time from his toil he looked down at the earth- 
country and there he saw many of the earth-people playing 
at games, or taking sweet sap from the maple trees, or gathering 
berries on the rolling hills ; but most of the men were lazily 
idling and doing nothing. The women were aU working, 
after the fashion of Indians in those days ; the men were 
working but httle. And Spider Man said to himself, " I 
should like to go to the earth-country where men idle their 
time away. I would many four wives who would work for 
me wMle I would take life easy, for I need a rest." 

31 



32 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

He was very tired of his work for he was kept at it day 
and night always spinning and weaving his webs. But when 
he asked for a rest he was not allowed to stop ; he was only 
kicked for his pains and called Sleepy Head, and Lazy-bones 
and other harsh names, and told to work harder. Then he 
grew angry and he resolved to punish the Star-people because 
they kept him so hard at work. He thought that if he 
punished them and made himself a nuisance, they would 
be glad to be rid of him. So he hit upon a crafty plan. Each 
night when a Star-fairy was climbing back to the sky-country, 
just as he came near the top of the ladder, the Spider Man 
would cut the strands and the fairy would faU to earth with 
a great crash. Night after night he did this, and he chuckled 
to himself as he saw the sky-fairies sprawling through the 
air and kicking their heels, while the earth-people looked 
up wonderingly at them and called them Shooting Stars. 
Many Star-people fell to earth in this way because of the 
Spider Man's tricks, and they could never get back to the sky- 
country because of their broken limbs or their disfigured 
faces, for in the sky-country the people all must have beauti- 
ful faces and forms. But Spider Man's tricks brought him 
no good ; the people would not drive him away because they 
needed his webs and he was kept always at his tasks. At 
last he decided to run away of his own accord, and, one night 
when the Moon and the Stars had gone to work and the Sun 
was asleep, he said farewell to the sky-country and let himself 




HE SAID FAREWELL TO THE SKY COUNTRY AND LET HIMSELF 
DOWN TO EARTH- BY O N' E OF HIS OWN STRANDS OF YARN 



THE FALL OF THE SPIDER MAN 33 

down to earth by one of his own strands of yarn, spinning it 
as he dropped down. 

In the earth-country he married four wives as he had 
planned, for he wanted them to work for him while he took 
his ease. He thought he had worked long enough. All went 
well for a time and the Spider Man was quite happy living his 
lazy and contented life. Not a strand did he spin, nor a web 
did he weave. No men on earth were working ; only the 
women toiled. At last, Glooskap, who ruled upon the earth 
in that time, became very angry because the men in these 
parts were so lazy, and he sent Famine into their country 
to punish them for their sins. Famine came very stealthily 
into the land and gathered up all the corn and carried it off ; 
then he called to him all the animals, and the birds, and the 
fish of the sea and river, and he took them away with him. 
In aU the land there was nothing left to eat. Only water 
remained. The people were very hungry and they lived 
on water for many days. Sometimes they drank the water 
cold, sometimes hot, sometimes luke-warm, but at best it 
was but poor fare. The Spider Man soon grew tired of this 
strange diet, for it did not satisfy his hunger to live always 
on water. It filled his belly and swelled him to a great size, 
but it brought him little nourishment or strength. So he 
said, " There must be good food somewhere in the world ; 
I will go iu search of it." 

That night when all the world was asleep he took a large 

D 



34 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

bag, and crept softly away from his four wives and set out 
on his quest for food. He did not want any one to know 
where he was going. For several days he travelled, Uving 
only on water ; but he found no food, and the bag was still 
•empty on his back. At last one day he saw birds in the 
trees and he knew that he was near the border of the Hunger- 
Land. That night in the forest when he stopped at a stream 
to drink, he saw a tiny gleam of Hght far ahead of him through 
the trees. He hurried towards the light and soon he came 
upon a man with a great himip on his shoulders and scars 
on his face, and a light hanging at his back, with a shade 
on it which he could close and open at his will. The Spider 
Man said, " I am looking for food ; teU me where I can find 
it." And the humped man with the hght said, " Do you 
want it for your people ? " But the Spider Man said, " No, 
I want it for myself." Then the humped man laughed and 
said, " You are near to the border of the Land of Plenty ; 
follow me and I will give you food." Then he flashed the 
light at his back, opening and closing the shade so that the 
hght flickered, and he set off quickly through the trees. The 
Spider Man followed the hght flashing in the darkness, but 
he had to go so fast that he was almost out of breath when 
he reached the house where the humped man had stopped. 
But the humped man only laughed when he saw the Spider 
Man coming puffing wearily along with his fat and swoUen 
beUy. He gave him a good fat meal and the Spider Man 



THE FALL OF THE SPIDER MAN 35 

soon felt better after his long fast. Then the humped man 
said, " You are the Spider Man who once weaved webs in 
the sky. I, too, once dwelt in the star-country, and one dark 
night as I was climbing back from the earth-country on your 
ladder, carrying my lamp on my back to Hght the way, when 
I was near the sky you cut the strands of the web and I fell 
to the earth with a great crash. That is why I have a great 
hump on my back and scars on my face, and because of this 
I have never been allowed to go back to the sky-country 
of the stars. I roam the earth at nights as a forest fairy 
just as I did in the olden days, for I have my former power 
still with me, and I still carry my lamp at my back ; it is 
the star-Hght from the sky-country. I shall never get back 
to the star-country while I have Hfe. But some day when 
my work on earth is done I shall go back. But although 
you were cruel to me I will give you food." The Spider Man 
remembered the nights he had cut the ladder strands, and he 
laughed to himself at the memory of the star-fairies falling to 
earth with a great crash. But the man with the hght knew that 
now he had his chance to take vengeance on the Spider Man. 
The latter did not suspect evil. He was glad to get food at 
last. 

Then the humped man said, " I will give you four pots. 
You must not open them until you get home. They will 
then be filled with food, and thereafter always when you 
open them they will be packed with good food. And the 



36 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

food wiU never grow less." The Spider Man put the four 
pots in his bag and slinging it over his shoulder he set out 
for his home, weU pleased with his success. After he had 
gone away, the humped man used his power to make him 
hungry. Yet for several days he travelled without opening 
the pots, for although he was almost starving he wished to 
do as the humped man had told him. At last he could wait 
no longer. He stopped near his home, took the pots cut 
of the bag and opened them. They were filled with good 
food as he had been promised. In one was a fine meat stew ; 
in another were many cooked vegetables ; in another was 
bread made from Indian com ; and in another was luscious 
ripe fruit. He ate until he was full. He covered the pots, 
put them back in the bag, and hid the bag among the trees. 
Then he went home. He had meanwhile taken pity on his 
people and he decided to invite the Chief and all the tribe 
to a feast the next evening, for the pots would be fuU, and 
the food would never decrease, and there would be enough 
for aU. He thought the people would regard him as a very 
wonderful man if he could supply them all with good food in 
their hunger. 

When he reached his home his wives were very glad to 
see him back, and they at once brought him water, the only 
food they had. But he laughed them to scorn, and threw 
the water in their faces and said, " Oh, foolish women, I do 
not want water ; it is not food for a great man Hke me. I 



THE FALL OF THE SPIDER MAN 37 

have had a good meal of meat stew and com bread and cooked 
vegetables and luscious ripe fruit. I know where much food 
is to be found, but I alone know. I can find food when all 
others fail, for I am a great man. Go forth and invite the 
Chief and all the people to a feast which I shall provide for 
them to-morrow night — a feast for all the land, for my food 
never grows less." They were all amazed when they heard 
his story, and the thought of his good meal greatly added 
to their hunger. But they went out and summoned all the 
tribe to a feast as he had told them. 

The next night all the people gathered for the feast, for 
the news of it had spread through all the land. They had 
taken no water that day, for they wished to eat well, and 
they were very hungry. They were as hungry as wild beasts 
in search of food. The Spider Man was very glad because 
the people praised him, and he proudly brought in his bag 
of pots. The people all waited hungrily and eagerly. But 
when he uncovered the first pot there was no food there ; 
he uncovered the second pot, but there was no food there ; 
he uncovered all the pots, but not a bit of food was in any of 
them. They were all empty, and in the bottom of each was 
a great gaping hole. Now it had happened in this way. 
When the humped man, the Star-fairy, had given the pots 
to the Spider Man, he knew well that the Spider Man would 
disobey his orders and that he would open the pots before 
he reached his home. He chuckled to himself, for he knew 



38 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

that now he could take vengeance on the web-weaver who 
had injured him. So when the Spider Man had left the pots 
among the trees, the humped man used his magic power 
and made holes in the pots, and the charm of the food was 
broken and all the food disappeared. When the people saw 
the empty pots they thought they had been purposely deceived. 
The remains of the food and the smell of stew and of fruit 
stiU clung to the pots. They thought the Spider Man had 
eaten all the food himself. So in their great hunger and 
their rage and their disappointment they fell upon him and 
beat him and bore him to the ground, while the humped 
man with the lamp at his back hiding behind the trees 
looked on and laughed in his glee. Then the people spHt 
the Spider Man's arms to the shoulders, and his legs to the 
thighs, so that he had eight limbs instead of four. And the 
humped man — the star-fairy named Fire-fly — came forth 
from behind the trees and standing over the fallen Spider 
Man he said, " Henceforth because of your cruelty to the 
star-people you wiU always crawl on eight legs, and you wiU 
have a fat round beUy because of the water you have drunk ; 
and sometimes you will live on top of the water. But you 
shall always eat only flies and insects. And you will always 
spin downwards but never upwards, and you wiU often try 
to get back to the star-country, but you shall always slip 
down again on the strand of yarn you have spun." Then 
Fire-fly flashed his light and went quickly away, opening 



THE FALL OF THE SPIDER MAN 39 

and closing the shade of his lamp as he flitted among the 
trees. And to this day the Spider Man Uves as the humped 
man of the lamp had spoken, because of the cruelty he 
practised on the star-fairies in the olden days. 



THE BOY WHO WAS CALLED THICK-HEAD 

THREE brothers lived with their old Indian mother 
in the forest near the sea. Their father had long 
been dead. At his death he had little of the 
world's goods to his credit and his widow and her sons were 
very poor. In the place where they dwelt, game was not 
plentiful, and to get food enough to keep them from want 
they had often to go far into the forest. The youngest boy 
was smaller and weaker than the others, and when the two 
older sons went far away to hunt, they always left him 
behind, for although he always wished to accompany them 
they would never allow him to go. He had to do all the 
work about the house, and all day long he gathered wood 
in the forest and carried water from the stream. And even 
when his brothers went out in the spring-time to draw sap 
from the maple trees he was never permitted to go with 
them. He was always making mistakes and doing fooUsh 
things. His brothers called him Thick-head, and all the 
people round about said he was a simpleton because of 
his slow and queer ways. His mother alone was kind to 
him and she always said, " They may laugh at you and 

40 



THE BOY WHO WAS CALLED THICK-HEAD 41 

call you fool, but you will prove to be wiser than all of 
them yet, for so it was told me by a forest fairy at your 
birth." 

The Chief of the people had a beautiful daughter who 
had many suitors. But her father spumed them all from 
his door and said, " My daughter is not yet of age to marry ; 
and when her time of marriage comes, she will only marry 
the man who can make great profit from hunting." The 
two older sons of the old woman decided that one of them 
must win the girl. So they prepared to set out on a great 
hunting expedition far away in the northern forest, for it 
was now autumn, and the hunter's moon had come. The 
youngest boy wanted to go with them, for he had never been 
away from home and he wished to see the world. And his 
mother said he might go. His brothers were very angry 
when they heard his request, and they said, " Much good 
Thick-head can do us in the chase. He will only bring us 
bad luck. He is not a hunter but a scullion and a drudge 
fit only for the fireside." But his mother commanded them 
to grant the boy's wish and they had to obey. So the three 
brothers set out for the north country, the two older brothers 
grumbling loudly because they were accompanied by the 
boy they thought a fobl. 

The two older brothers had good success in the chase 
and they killed many animals — deer and rabbits and otters 
and beavers. And they came home bearing a great quantity 



42 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

of dried meat and skins. They each thought, " Now we 
have begun to prove our prowess to the Chief, and if we 
succeed as weU next year when the hunter's moon comes 
again, one of us will surely win his daughter when she is old 
enough to marry." But all the youngest boy brought home 
as a result of his journey into the game country was a large 
Earth-Worm as thick as his finger and as long as his arm. 
It was the biggest Earth- Worm he had ever seen. He thought 
it a great curiosity as weU as a great discovery, and he was 
so busy watching it each day that he had no time to hunt. 
When he brought it home in a box, his brothers said to their 
mother, " What did we tell you about Thick-head ? He has 
now surely proved himself a fool. He has caught only a 
fat Earth- Worm in all these weeks." And they noised it 
abroad in the village and all the people laughed loudly at 
the simpleton, until " Thick-head's hunt " became a by-word 
in aU the land. But the boy's mother only smiled and said, 
" He will surprise them all yet." 

The boy kept the Earth-Worm in a tiay pen just outside 
the door of his home. One day a large Duck came waddling 
along, and sticking her bill over the httle fence of the pen 
she quickly gobbled up the Worm. The boy was very angry 
and he went to the man who owned the Duck, and said, 
" Your Duck ate up my pet Worm. I want my Worm." 
The man offered to pay him whatever price he asked, but 
the boy said, " I do not want your price. I want my Worm." 



THE BOY WHO WAS CALLED THICK-HEAD 43 

But the man said, " How can I give you your Worm when 
my Duck has eaten it up ? It is gone for ever." And 
the boy said, "It is not gone. It is in the Duck's 
belly. So I must have the Duck." Then to avoid fur- 
ther trouble the man gave Thick-head the Duck, for he 
thought to himself, *' What is the use of arguing with a 
fool." 

The boy took the Duck home and kept it in a Uttle pen 
near his home with a low fence around it. And he tied a 
great weight to its foot so that it could not fly away. He 
was quite happy again, for he thought, " Now I have both my 
Worm and the Duck." But one day a Fox came prowling 
along looking for food. He saw the fat Duck tied by the foot 
in the Httle pen. And he said, " What good fortune ! There 
is a choice meal for me," and in a twinkling he was over the 
fence. The Duck quacked and made a great noise, but she 
was soon silenced. The Fox had just finished eating up 
the Duck when the boy, who had heard the quacking, came 
running out of the house. The Fox was smacking his lips 
after his good meal, and he was too slow in getting away. 
The boy feU to beating him with a stout club and soon kiUed 
him and threw his body into the yard behind the house. And 
he thought, " That is not so bad. Now I have my Worm and 
the Duck and the Fox." 

That night an old Wolf came through the forest in search 
of food. He was very hungry, and in the bright moonlight 



44 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

he saw the dead Fox l3mig in the yard. He pounced upon 
it greedily and devoured it until not a trace of it was left. 
But the boy saw him before he could get away, and he came 
stealthily upon him and killed him with a blow of his axe. 
" I am surely in good luck," he thought, " for now I have 
the Worm and the Duck and the Fox and the Wolf." 
But the next day when he told his brothers of his good 
fortune and his great skiU, they laughed at him loudly 
and said, " Much good a dead Wolf will do you. Before 
two days have passed it will be but an evil-smeUing 
thing and we shaU have to bury it deep. You are indeed 
a great fool." The boy pondered for a long time over 
what they had said, and he thought, " Perhaps they are 
right. The dead Wolf cannot last long. I wiU save the 
skin." 

So he skinned the Wolf and dried the skin and made a 
drum from it. For the drum was one of the few musical 
instruments of the Indians in those old times, and they beat 
it loudly at aU their dances and festivals. The boy beat the 
drum each evening, and made a great noise, and he was very 
proud because he had the only drum in the whole village. 
One day the Chief sent for him and said to him, " I want to 
borrow your drum for this evening. I am having a great 
gathering to announce to aU the land that my daughter is 
now of age to marry and that suitors may now seek her hand 
in marriage. But we have no musical instruments and I 




THAT NIGHT AN OLD WOLF CAME THROUGH 
THE FOREST IN SEARCH OF FOOD 



THE BOY WHO WAS CALLED THICK-HEAD 45 

want your drum, and I myself will beat it at the dance." So 
Thick-head brought his drum to the Chief's house, but he 
was not very well pleased, because he was not invited to 
the feast, while his brothers were among the favoured guests. 
And he said to the Chief, " Be very careful. Do not tear 
the skin of my drum, for I can never get another Hke it. My 
Worm and my Duck and my Fox and my Wolf have all helped 
to make it." 

The next day he went for his dnmi. But the Chief had 
struck it too hard and had split it open so that it would now 
make no sound and it was ruined beyond repair. He offered 
to pay the boy a great price for it, but the boy said, " I do 
not want your price. I want my drum. Give me back my 
drum, for my Worm and the Duck and the Fox and the Wolf 
are all in it." The Chief said, " How can I give you back 
your drum when it is broken? It is gone for ever. I will 
give you anything you desire in exchange for it. Since you 
do not like the price I offer, you may name your own price 
and you shaU have it." And the boy thought to himself, 
" Here is a chance for good fortune. Now I shall surprise 
my brothers." And he said, " Since you cannot give me my 
drum, I will take your daughter in marriage in exchange." 
The Chief was much perplexed, but he had to be true to his 
word. So he gave his daughter to Thick-head, and they 
were married, and the girl brought him much treasure and 
they lived very happily. And his brothers were much amazed 



46 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

and angered because they had failed. But his mother said, 
" I told you he was wiser than you and that he would outwit 
you yet although you called him Thick-head and fool. For 
the forest fairy said it to me at his birth." 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 

IONG ago an Indian Chief was living with his people 
far in the Canadian forest. Life was good and 
-^ food was plentiful and the people were aU very 
happy. But one day a wicked giant and his old witch wife 
came crashing into the land from a far country beyond the 
prairies. They devoured all the food they could lay their 
hands on and soon there was Httle left to eat in aU the 
country ; and often they carried off httle children to their 
hiding-place and ate them up until not a trace of them 
remained. Somewhere far in the forest they dwelt in a hidden 
cave ; they slept aU day long, but at night they always stalked 
forth in search of plimder. The Chief was much troubled, 
and with his warriors he tried in every way to discover their 
hiding-place, but no one ever succeeded in finding it. For 
by the use of their magic power the giant and his old witch 
wife could make themselves invisible when they walked 
abroad among men and they could not be caught. The Chief 
called aU his warriors to a council, and he said, " Who can 
rid me of this pest ? Who can kiU the giant ? " But not 
a man rephed. And when he saw his people's store of food 

47 



48 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

rapidly growing smaller and the little children of his tribe 
slowly disappearing, he was greatly puzzled as to what he 
should do. 

One night of bright moonlight Rabbit was prowling 
through the woods, as was his custom, in search of some one 
on whom he could play a prank, for he was a great joker. 
Suddenly he came upon the giant and his old witch wife 
standing by an opening in the side of a low mountain. He 
watched them for a long time from the shadow of a great 
tree, and at last he saw them enter a large hole in the side 
of the hni. He knew now that he had hit by accident upon 
the giant's cave and he was weU pleased by his discovery. 
But he kept his secret to himself, for he thought, " Here 
is a good chance for me to win fame. I will kiU the giants 
by a crafty trick and I will then be looked upon as a great 
warrior, the foremost in all the land, for all the Chief's men 
have failed to find the giants." 

So he went to the Chief and said, " Oh, Chief, I know where 
the giants live and I swear to you that I am going to kill 
them. It is I alone who can rid you of these pests." 
" You ! " said the Chief in great surprise ; " little harm the 
like of you can do to giants ; they will eat you up in one 
mouthful," and he laughed loudly at Rabbit's boldness. 
And he called to his warriors sa5dng, " See what a stout 
fighter we have here ! Little Rabbit says he can do what 
we have failed to do ; he swears that he wiU kill the giants ; 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 49 

he is better fitted to kiU a mouse ! " And they all laughed 
loud haw-haws at Rabbit's vanity. 

Poor Rabbit's pride was deeply hurt by the Chief's scorn 
and the warriors' cruel laughter, but it aU made him more 
determined than ever to slay the thieving giants. So he 
went to an old woman who lived near-by and said, " Give 
me an old faded dress and a ragged old shawl and your 
coloured spectacles and a hat with a feather in it." The 
old woman wondered what tricks he was up to now, but she 
gave him what he asked for. He put on the tattered old 
dress and the battered old hat with a red feather sticking 
from the top, and he wrapped the old shawl about his face, 
and he wore the woman's coloured spectacles and he carried 
a crooked stick. And dressed in this fashion he set out 
towards evening for the giants' home. When he reached 
the mouth of the cave, he stood still and waited, leaning on 
his crooked stick, for night was coming on and he knew that 
the giants would soon be going out on their plundering 
rounds. 

After a time when it was quite dark except for the moon- 
light, the giant's old witch wife came out of the cave. When 
she saw Rabbit in the dim light she said gruffly, " Who are 
you, standing there in the shadows ? " " Oh, my dear niece," 
said Rabbit, " I have found you at last. I am your poor 
old aunt. I thought I had lost my way. I have come to 
see you from your home in the far coimtry. It was a long 

E 



50 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

journey and my poor old legs and back are stiff and sore, 
and I am very hungry and tired ; " and he moved slowly 
towards the woman, hobbling along with his crooked stick. 
The giant woman was deceived, and she threw her arms 
around Rabbit and kissed him, and she did not feel his 
whiskers or his split lip because of the old shawl that was 
wrapped around his face. " I have a pain in my jaw from 
sleeping out of doors," said Rabbit, " and I must keep my 
face wrapped up." 

" Come in and rest, and you wiU soon feel better," said 
the giant woman. 

" You wiU have to lead me in," said Rabbit, not wishing 
to take off the shawl, " for my eyesight is very bad." 

So she led Rabbit into the warm cave, which was so dark 
that they could scarcely see each other, and she called her 
husband and said, " Here is my dear old aunt who has come 
aU the way from the far country beyond the prairies." And 
the giant, believing Rabbit to be his wife's kindred, for he 
could not see him very clearly, treated him very kindly. 
And they showed him the bed where he was to sleep. 

The woman then gave Rabbit a large piece of dried meat 
to eat. But Rabbit said, " I cannot eat it, for I am old and 
I have lost all my teeth. Give me an axe to cut it up small." 
So the woman brought him a sharp axe and he chopped the 
meat into smaU pieces and ate it all up. And he said, " I 
win keep the axe by me, for I shall need it at aU my meals," 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 51 

and he placed it beside his bed. The giant said, " We are 
going away to see some friends, but we shaU be back before 
midnight." But before they went away Rabbit said to the 
woman, " I hope your husband sleeps soundly ; I have a 
bad cough and I sometimes moan because of the pain in my 
face and head and I do not wish to disturb him." 

And the old giant woman answered, " He slumbers too 
weU. When we sleep we both snore loudly, and when you 
hear us snoring you may cough as much as you please, for 
then you will know that we are sound asleep." Then the 
man and his witch wife went away. 

When the giants came home. Rabbit pretended to be 
fast asleep. They brought back with them much food w^hich 
they hid in a secret place at the side of the cave. Rabbit 
watched them through the holes in the old shawl around 
his head. Soon they went to bed, drowsy after their fat 
meal. When Rabbit heard them snoring loudly like a great 
water-fall, " chr-r-r, chr-r-r," he arose very quietly and crept 
softly to their bedside. With two blows of his axe he killed 
the giant and his wife, one after the other. Then he ran 
away as fast as he could, carrying with him his old dress 
and hat and shawl, for he thought he might need them again. 

In the morning he went to the Chief's house and told 
the Chief what he had done. The Chief laughed scornfully 
and he would not believe it until Rabbit brought him to the 
cave and showed him the slain giants cold and stiff in their 



52 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

bed. The Chief's men then took back to the village the great 
store of food the giants had hidden in the secret place. But 
the Chief and his warriors, although they were glad to be 
rid of the thieves, were angry at heart because Rabbit whom 
they had laughed at had done what they had failed to do, 
for they were very jealous of Rabbit's power. 

One day soon afterwards the Chief called aU the birds 
and the animals to a council, and he said, " Now that the 
giants who robbed us of our food are dead and gone, and 
that we shall never again want for nourishment in my country, 
I am going to let each animal and bird choose the kind of 
food he w^ould most hke to live on if he could get it. And 
they shaU never want for that kind of food if it can be pro- 
vided." And he called on each to make the choice. And 
the birds said " Grain and seeds and worms," and the Squirrel 
said " Nuts," and the Fox said " Chickens," and the cat 
said " Milk," and the dog said " Meat and bones," and the 
weasel said " Eggs," and the wolf said " Lambs," and the 
bear said " Fish from the frozen sea," and so on until each 
animal was caUed upon and declared his hking. And the 
Chief said, " It shaU be as you have chosen." But the Chief 
had purposely neglected to summon poor Rabbit to the 
council, and Rabbit was absent on a long journey. When 
he came home, he was very angry when he heard what had 
happened, for only the left-over in the world's food remained 
for him to choose. So he went to the Chief and said in great 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 53 

wrath, " This is a fine return for ridding your land of giants. 
But that is a way you have ; you always reward good deeds 
with evil." 

The Chief was very angry because of Rabbit's insolence, 
and he said, " You are teUing lies again." But Rabbit called 
as witnesses to the truth of what he said Sheep and Goat 
and Duck who chanced to be passing by and who stood 
listening to the quarrel. And old Sheep said, " Rabbit has 
spoken truly. When I was young I gave the Chief much 
wool to make clothes for his back and he used me well. But 
now that I am old he is going to kiU me and eat me up. That 
is my reward." And old Goat said, " Rabbit has spoken 
wisely and justly. I served the Chief weU in my time and 
gave him milk, but now that I am old and have no more 
milk he is fattening me and getting me read}^ for slaughter. 
That is my reward." And old Duck said, " That is a true 
saying of Rabbit. Once upon a time I gave the Chief many 
eggs and young ducklings, but now that I have stopped 
laying he is soon going to roast me in a pot. That is my 
reward." The Chief could make no answer to these charges, 
for he knew them to be true, and he offered to do what was 
in his power for Rabbit. But Rabbit refused to make choice 
of food, for he said the best was already gone. He sulked 
for many months and lived alone by his own efforts as best 
he could. 

At last he decided to take vengeance on the Chief. And 



54 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

he hit, as was his custom, on a crafty trick. The Chief had 
an old Bear which he prized very highly, for the Bear did 
for him many wondrous tricks and brought laughter to him 
and his warriors when he danced at their feasts. In those 
olden times Bear had a long bushy tail of which he was very 
proud. One day as Rabbit sat on the ice fishing — for it 
was now winter — Bear came along. There was to be a 
feast that night and he was going to dance for the Chief, and 
he was in very good spirits. " Where did you get aU the 
fine fish ? " he asked, for he was a great fish eater. " I caught 
them through the hole in the ice," said Rabbit. "It is very 
easy. Just drop your tail down through the hole and it wiU 
soon be covered with fine big fish." 

Bear did as he was told, and he sat on the ice for a long 
time waiting for his prey. He sat so long that the hole froze 
up, for it was very cold, and in it was frozen poor Bear's long 
bushy tail. " Now," said Rabbit, " jump quick, for many 
fish are hanging to you." Bear jumped with aU his might, 
but his tail was held fast in the ice and it broke off close to 
the root. Rabbit laughed in great glee and ran away. And 
poor Bear howled with pain and shame. He could not dance 
at the feast because his stub of a tail was sore, and the Chief 
and the warriors were very angry at Rabbit because he had 
harmed their dancing pet. And since that time Bear has 
had a short stubby tail which to this day he tries to wag 
feebly. 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 55 

Rabbit then hid for some days far from the Chief and 
his warriors. Then he decided to try another trick. The 
Chief's wood-cutter was old Beaver, who Hved in a httle house 
of reeds on the bank of a stream. He was very busy now 
cutting down trees for the Chief, for it was near to spring- 
time and the people were in need of logs for building roads 
over the rivers. One day Rabbit went to Beaver and said, 
" The Chief sent me to you to bring you to a great tree he 
wishes you to cut down at once." So Beaver went along 
with him. But when Beaver was busy at his task cutting 
down the tree, Rabbit hit him a savage blow on the head 
with a big stick hoping to kill him and thus again to anger 
the Chief. Poor Beaver fell to the ground and Rabbit ran 
away. But Beaver was only stunned. He got up after a 
time and went home muttering to himself and rubbing his 
sore head. Soon Rabbit came back to the tree and found 
Beaver gone. He knew that his blow had failed. Then 
he put on again his tattered old dress and his ragged shawl 
and his coloured spectacles and the hat with the red feather 
sticking to the top, and he went to Beaver's house by the 
stream, hobbling along with a stick. " The Chief sent me 
to you to bring you to a great tree he wishes you to cut down 
at once," he called. And Beaver said, " I have already tried 
to cut a great tree for him to-day and I should have finished 
it had I not been beaten with a stick until I was stunned 
by the blow." " Who struck you ? " asked Rabbit, laughing 



56 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

to himself. " Rabbit struck me," answered Beaver. " He 
is a great brigand and a liar and a thief," said Rabbit, " He 
is aU that," said Beaver, rubbing the lump on his head. So 
Beaver went along with Rabbit. And Rabbit asked as they 
went along, " How is it that you are alive after that cruel 
blow ? " And Beaver said, " Rabbit hit me on the head. 
If he had hit me on the back of my neck he would have killed 
me, for there I keep the secret of my life." 

When Beaver was busy again at his task cutting down 
the tree. Rabbit hit him a powerful blow on the back of the 
neck and poor Beaver fell down dead. Then he cut off his 
tail that was made like a file, and went away happy, for he 
knew that the Chief would be very angry when he found what 
had happened to his wood-cutter. 

When the Chief learned that Beaver had been killed, his 
wrath knew no bounds, for he could ill afford at this time 
to lose his best wood-chopper. He blamed Rabbit for the 
deed, but he could not be sure that his suspicions were weU- 
founded. Rabbit kept out of the Chief's sight for some weeks. 
But one day in early summer he was very hungry. He saw 
aU the other animals filling their bellies with their favourite 
food, and he decided to forget his sulks and to ask the Chief 
for help. So he went to the Chief and said haughtily, " I 
want you to give me food for my own special use as you have 
done with the other animals. You must do it at once or I 
wiU do you much harm." Then the Chief remembered what 




HE WENT TO BEAVER S HOUSE BY THE 
STREAM, HOBBLING ALONG WITH A STICK 



RABBIT AND THE INDIAN CHIEF 57 

Rabbit had done to his dancing Bear, and he thought of the 
death of Beaver, for which he blamed Rabbit without proof, 
and he grew red with anger. He seized Rabbit by the heels 
and said, " Henceforth the dogs will always chase you, and 
you wiU never have peace when they are near. And you 
will live for the most part on whatever food I throw you into 
now." Then he whirled Rabbit around his head by the heels, 
and he threw him from him with great force, hoping to drop 
him in a great black swamp near-by. Poor Rabbit went 
flying through the air for a great distance, farther than the 
Chief had hoped, and he dropped with a thud into a field 
of clover on the edge of which cabbages and lettuce were 
growing. And since that time the dogs have always chased 
Rabbit and he has hved for the most part on cabbages and 
lettuce and clover which he steals on moonlight nights from 
farmers' fields. 



GREAT HEART AND THE THREE TESTS 

SOMEWHERE near the sea in olden times a boy was 
living with his father and mother. He had no 
brothers or sisters. His father was a great hunter 
and the boy inherited something of his power, for he was 
always very successful in the killing of game. And his mother 
said, " Some day he will be a great man, for before his birth 
a vision came to me in the night and told me that my son 
would win wide fame. And fairy gifts were laid by the fairies 
in his cradle." And his father, Ustening to her boasting, 
said, " Time will tell ; time will tell ; but if he is to be a great 
man it is his own deeds and not your boasting that must 
prove it." As the boy grew up he became strangely beautiful 
and he had great strength. And his father said, "It is time 
he set out to seek his fortune. I was in the forest doing for 
myself when I was no older than he." And his mother said, 
" Wait a httle and be not so impatient. He is yet young 
and there is yet much time." So the boy remained at home 
a while longer. 

Now it happened that far away in a distant village there 
lived a young girl of very great beauty and grace. Her 

58 



GREAT HEART AND THE THREE TESTS 59 

father had been a great Chief, but he was now dead. Her 
mother too was dead, and she was all alone in the world. 
But her parents had left her vast lands and a great store of 
goods and many servants, and because of her treasures and 
her great beauty she had many suitors. But she was not 
easily pleased by men and on aU who came to seek her hand 
she imposed severe feats of skill to test their sincerity and 
their worth. She was carefully guarded by an old woman 
and many servants who kept troublesome and meddlesome 
people away. 

Soon the fame of the girl's wealth and beauty spread 
through all the land. It reached the sea coast village where 
the young man dwelt. His father thought to himself, " Here 
is a good chance for my son to prove his worth." So he called 
his boy to him and said, " It is time you were setting out to 
seek your fortune in the world and to find a wife, for your 
spring-time is passing and your summer of life wiU soon be 
here, and before you know it your autumn wiU be upon you 
and your winter will be near. There is no time to lose. Seek 
out the beautiful girl of the rich treasures in the distant inland 
village and try to win her as your wife." And his mother 
gave him the fairy gifts which had been laid in his cradle 
at his birth, and he said good-bye to his parents and set out 
on his long journey. He had no misgivings, for he was very 
vain of his beauty and he was sure, too, of his strength. 

As he travelled inland he came one day upon a man clad 



6o CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

in scarlet sitting on the side of a rocky hiU tying stones to 
his feet. " HeUo," he said to the man, " why are you tj^ing 
these heavy rocks to your ankles ? " " I am a hunter," 
replied the man, " but when I follow the deer I run so fast 
that I am soon far in front of them instead of behind them, 
and I am putting heavy weights on my feet so that I will 
not run so rapidly." " You are indeed a wonderful man," 
said the boy ; " but I am alone and I need a companion. 
Let us go along together." " Who are you ? " said the man. 
" I am Lad of the Great Heart," said the boy, " and I can 
do great deeds and I can win for you great treasure." So 
the Scarlet Runner went along with him. 

Towards evening when they were now far inland, they 
came to a large lake. Among the trees on the fringe of the 
lake a large fat man was lying flat on his stomach with his 
mouth in the water drinking as hard as he could. For some 
time they watched him, but stiU he drank and the lake grew 
smaller and smaller and stiU his thirst was not quenched. 
They laughed at such a strange sight, and as they approached 
him the boy said, " HeUo I Why do you He there drinking 
so much water ? " " Oh," answered the fat man, " there 
are times when I cannot get enough water to drink. When 
I have drunk this lake dry I shaU still be thirsty." " WTio 
are you ? " asked the boy. " I am Man of the Great Thirst," 
said the fat man. " That is weU," said Great Heart, " we 
two need a third companion. We can do great deeds and 




HE CAME ONE DAY UPON A MAN CLAD IN SCARLET SITTING 
ON THE SIDE OF A ROCKY HILL TYING STONES TO HIS FEET 



GREAT HEART AND THE THREE TESTS 6i 

we can win for you great treasure." So the three went along 
together. 

They had not gone far when they came to a wide open 
plain where they saw a man walking along with his face raised 
upwards, peering at the sky. He moved along rapidly and 
seemed to find his way without his eyes, for he gazed steadily 
at the heavens. " Hello," said Great Heart as the sky-gazer 
rushed past him and almost knocked him over, " what are 
you looking at so intently ? " " Oh," said the man, " I have 
shot an arrow into the sky and I am waiting for it to fall. 
It has gone so far that it will be some time before it drops." 
" Who are you ? " asked the boy. " I am the Far-Darter," 
said the sky-gazer. " We three need a fourth companion," 
said the boy. " We can do great deeds and win for you much 
treasure. Come along with us." So the four went along 
together. 

They had gone but a short distance across the plain to 
the edge of a forest when they came upon a man lying down 
at full length with his head upon his hand. The edge of his 
hand was on the ground and it was half closed around his 
ear, which rested upon it. As he saw the four men approach- 
ing him he placed a finger of his other hand upon his hps 
and signalled to them to keep quiet. " Hello," said Great 
Heart in a whisper, " what are you doing there with your 
ear to the ground ? " "I am Hstening to the plants growing 
far away in the forest," he answered. " There is a beautiful 



62 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

flower I wish to find, and I am trying to hear it breathing 
so that I may go and get it. Aha ! I hear it now." So saying 
he rose from the ground. The boy said, " Who are you ? " 
" I am Keen Ears," said the hstener. " We four need another 
companion," said Great Heart. " We can do great deeds and 
win for you much treasure. Come along with us." So the 
four men and the boy went along together. Keen Ears, and 
Scarlet Runner, and Far Darter, and Man of the Great Thirst, 
and Lad of the Great Heart. Then Great Heart unfolded 
to the others his plan to win the beautiful girl who hved with 
her treasures in the distant village. And they gladly agreed 
to help him in his dangerous undertaking. 

When they reached the village, the people were aU very 
curious when they saw the five strangers. They marvelled 
at Great Heart's beauty. But when they heard that he 
wished to maiTy the daughter of the former Chief they shook 
their heads gravely and said, " It wiU never be. She places 
hard conditions on aU who seek her hand. He who fails 
in the tests is doomed to death. Many suitors have tried 
and failed and died." But Great Heart was not alarmed, 
and with his four companions he went to the girl's home. 
The old woman who guarded her met him at the door and 
he made known his wishes. She laughed scornfully when 
she saw his great beauty, and she said, " You look more Hke 
a girl than like a warrior. You cannot endure the tests.'* 
But the young man insisted on making the trials. 



GREAT HEART AND THE THREE TESTS 63 

The old woman said, " If you fail in the tests you will 
die," and Great Heart said, "It is so agreed." Then the 
woman said, " If you wish to win the maiden you must first 
push away this great rock from before her window. It keeps 
the sunhght from her in the mornings." Then Great Heart, 
calling to his aid the fairy gifts of his cradle, placed his shoulder 
against the huge stone which rose higher than the house, 
and he pushed with all his strength. With a mighty crash 
it roUed down the hiU and broke into millions of pieces. The 
bits of rock flew aU over the earth so great was the fall, and 
the Httle pebbles and stones that came from it are seen 
throughout the world to this day. The sunlight streamed 
in at the window, and the maiden knew that the first test 
had been successfully passed by a suitor. 

Then came the second test. The old woman and her 
servants brought great quantities of food and drink and bade 
the strangers consume it aU at one meal. They were very 
hungry, for they had eaten nothing aU day and they easily 
ate up the food. But when Great Heart saw the great barrels 
of water, his spirits sank, and he said, " I fear I am beaten." 
But Man of the Great Thirst said, " Not so fast, my friend. 
The speU of great stomach-burning is again upon me. I 
am very dry as if there was a fire in my belly. Give me a 
chance to drink." He went from barrel to barrel and in a 
twinkling he had drained them all of every drop. And the 
people wondered greatly. 



64 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

But there was still another test. " You must have one 
of your party run a race," said the old woman to Great Heart. 
And she brought out a man who had never been beaten in 
running. "Who is your choice of runners?" she asked; 
" he must race with this man, and if he wins you may have 
the maiden for your wife and aU the treasure with her, for 
this is the final test. But if he loses the race you shaU die." 
Great Heart called Scarlet Runner to the mark and told the 
old woman that this was the man selected. Then he untied 
the rocks from the runner's feet, and when aU was ready the 
race began. The course lay far across the plains for many 
miles until the runners should pass from sight, and back 
again to the starting point. The two runners kept together 
for some distance, talking together in a friendly way as they 
ran. When they had passed from sight of the village the 
maiden's runner said, " Now we are out of sight of the village. 
Let us rest here a while on this grassy bank, for the day is 
hot." The Scarlet Runner agreed to this and they both 
stretched out on the grass. Now this was an old trick of 
the maiden's runner, who always won by craft rather than 
by speed. They had not lain down long on the grass when 
Scarlet Runner feU asleep under the hot sun, just as his rival 
had hoped. When the latter was sure that his rival was 
sound asleep, he set out for the village, running as fast as he 
could. The people soon saw their runner approaching far 
off on the plains, but there was no sign of the stranger, and 



GREAT HEART AND THE THREE TESTS 65 

they thought that the new suitor for the girl's hand had at 
last failed like all the others before him. 

Great Heart was much puzzled when Scarlet Runner 
did not appear, and as he saw the maiden's runner coming 
nearer, he said, " What can have happened ? I fear I am 
beaten." But Keen Ears threw himself flat on the ground 
and hstened. "Scarlet Runner is asleep," he called; "I 
hear him snoring on the plains far away." And with his 
keen sense of sound he located the exact spot where the runner 
was Ijdng. " I will soon wake him," said Far-Darter, as 
he fitted an arrow to his bow-string. The people all thought 
him mad, for they had never seen an arrow shot so great a 
distance beyond their sight. But Far-Darter was not 
dismayed. He quickly shot an arrow from his bow to the 
spot which Keen Ears had indicated. His aim was so true 
that the arrow hit Scarlet Runner on the nose and aroused 
him from his sleep. But when he rose to his feet he found 
that his rival was gone and he knew that he had been deceived. 
So in a great rage because of the trick and the pain in his 
nose, he set out for the village running like the wind. His 
rival had almost reached the end of the race, but by putting 
all his strength into his effort. Scarlet Runner quickly over- 
took him and passed him near the winning-post and won 
the race. And the people wondered greatly at these great 
deeds of the strangers. 

Then the old woman said to Great Heart, " You have 

F 



66 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

won the maiden as your wife, for you alone have succeeded 
in these tests." So the two were married with great ceremony. 
Great Heart gave much treasure to his companions, and 
they promised to help him always in his need. Then with 
his wife and her servants and her great store of goods he went 
back to his native village by the sea. His father and mother 
were glad to see him again and to hear of his success, and 
his mother said, " I told you he would win great fame because 
of the fairy gifts that were laid in his cradle at his birth." 
And they aU hved together and were henceforth very happy. 



THE BOY OF THE RED TWILIGHT SKY 

IONG ago there dwelt on the shores of the Great 
Water in the west a young man and his younger 
-^ wife. They had no children and they lived aU 
by themselves far from other people on an island not far 
from the coast. The man spent his time in catching the 
deep-sea fish far out on the ocean, or in spearing salmon in 
the distant rivers. Often he was gone for many days and 
his wife was very lonely in his absence. She was not afraid, 
for she had a stout spirit, but it was very dismal in the 
evenings to look only at the grey leaden sky and to hear only 
the sound of the surf as it beat upon the beach. So day after 
day she said to herself, " I wish we had children. They 
would be good company for me when I am alone and my 
husband is far away." 

One evening at twilight when she was solitary because 
of her husband's absence on the ocean catching the deep- 
sea fish, she sat on the sand beach looking out across the 
water. The sky in the west was pale grey ; it was always 
dull and grey in that country, and when the sun had gone 
down there was no soft light. In her loneliness the woman 

67 



68 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

said to herself, " I wish we had children to keep me company." 
A Kingfisher, with his children, was diving for minnows not 
far away. And the woman said, " Oh, sea bird with the 
white collar, I wish we had children like you." And the 
Kingfisher said, " Look in the sea-shells ; look in the sea- 
shells," and flew away. The next evening the woman sat 
again upon the beach looking westward at the dull grey sky. 
Not far away a white Sea-gull was riding on the waves in 
the midst of her brood of little ones. And the woman said, 
" Oh, white sea bird, I wish we had children Hke you to keep 
us company." And the Sea-gull said, " Look in the sea- 
shells ; look in the sea-shells," and flew away. 

The woman wondered greatly at the words of the King- 
fisher and the Sea-Gull. As she sat there in thought she 
heard a strange cry coming from the sand dunes behind her. 
She went closer to the sound and found that the cry came 
from a large sea-shell lying on the sand. She picked up the 
shell, and inside of it was a tiny boy, crying as hard as he 
could. She was well pleased with her discovery, and she 
carried the baby to her home and cared for him. When her 
husband came home from the sea, he, too, was very happy to 
find the baby there, for he knew that they would be lonely 
no more. 

The baby grew very rapidly, and soon he was able to 
walk and move about where he pleased. One day the woman 
was wearing a copper bracelet on her arm and the child said 



THE BOY OF THE RED TWILIGHT SKY 69 

to her, " I must have a bow made from the copper on your 
arm." So to please him she made him a tiny bow from the 
bracelet, and two tiny arrows. At once he set out to hunt 
game, and day after day he came home bearing the products 
of his chase. He brought home geese and ducks and brant 
and small sea birds, and gave them to his mother for food. 
As he grew older the man and his wife noticed that his face 
took on a golden hue brighter than the colour of his copper 
bow. Wherever he went there was a strange light. When 
he sat on the beach looking to the west the weather was 
always calm and there were strange bright gleams upon the 
water. And his foster-parents wondered greatly at this 
unusual power. But the boy would not talk about it ; when 
they spoke of it he was always silent. 

It happened once that the winds blew hard over the Great 
Water and the man could not go out to catch fish because 
of the turbulent sea. For many days he stayed on shore, 
for the ocean, which was usually at peace, was lashed into 
a great fury and the waves were dashing high on the beach. 
Soon the people were in need of fish for food. And the boy 
said, " I wiU go out with you, for I can overcome the Storm 
Spirit." The man did not want to go, but at last he listened 
to the boy's entreaties and together they set out for the 
fishing grounds far across the tossing sea. They had not 
gone far when they met the Spirit of the Storm coming madly 
from the south-west where the great winds dwelt. He tried 



70 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

hard to upset their boat, but over them he had no power, for 
the boy guided the frail craft across the water and all around 
them the sea was calm and still. Then the Storm Spirit 
called his nephew Black Cloud to help him, and away in the 
south-east they saw him hurrying to his uncle's aid. But 
the boy said to the man, " Be not afraid, for I am more than 
a match for him." So the two met, but when Black Cloud 
saw the boy he quickly disappeared. Then the Spirit of 
the Storm caUed Mist of the Sea to come and cover the water, 
for he thought the boat would be lost if he hid the land from 
the man and the boy. When the man saw Mist of the Sea 
coming Hke a grey vapour across the water he was very 
frightened, for of all his enemies on the ocean he feared this 
one most. But the boy said, " He cannot harm you when 
I am with you." And sure enough, when Mist of the Sea 
saw the boy sitting smiling in the boat he disappeared as 
quickly as he had come. And the Storm Spirit in great anger 
hurried away to other parts, and that day there was no more 
danger on the sea near the fishing grounds. 

The boy and the man soon reached the fishing grounds 
in safety. And the boy taught his foster-father a magic 
song with which he was able to lure fish to his nets. Before 
evening came the boat was filled with good fat fish and they 
set out for their home. The man said, " Tell me the secret 
of your power." But the boy said, " It is not yet time." 
The next day the boy kiUed many birds. He skinned 




AND SHE MAKES TO HIM AN OFFERING OF TINY WHITE 
FEATHERS PLUCKED FROM THE BREASTS OF BIRDS 



THE BOY OF THE RED TWILIGHT SKY 71 

them all and dried their skins. Then he dressed himself in 
the skin of a plover and rose into the air and flew above the 
sea. And the sea under him was grey Uke his wings. Then 
he came down and dressed himself in the skin of a blue- jay 
and soared away again. And the sea over which he was 
flying was at once changed to blue like the blue of his wings. 
When he came back to the beach, he put on the skin of a robin 
with the breast of a golden hue Hke his face. Then he flew 
high and at once the waves under him reflected a colour as 
of fire and bright gleams of light appeared upon the ocean, 
and the sky in the west was golden red. The boy flew back 
to the beach and he said to his foster-parents, " Now it is 
time for me to leave you. I am the offspring of the sun. 
Yesterday my power was tested and it was not found wanting, 
so now I must go away and I shaU see you no more. But 
at evening I shaU appear to you often in the twilight sky in 
the west. And when the sky and the sea look at evening 
like the colour of my face, you wiU know that there wiU be 
no wind nor storm and that on the morrow the weather wiU 
be fair. But although I go away, I shall leave you a strange 
power. And always when you need me, let me know your 
desires by making white offerings to me, so that I may see 
them from my home far in the west.'* 

Then he gave to his foster-mother a wonderful robe. He 
bade his parents good-bye, and soared away to the west, 
leaving them in sadness. But the woman stiU keeps a part 



72 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

of the power he gave her, and when she sits on the island 
in a crevice in the dunes and loosens her wonderful robe, 
the wind hurries down from the land, and the sea is ruffled 
with storm ; and the more she loosens the gaiment the greater 
is the tempest. But in the late autumn when the cold mists 
come in from the sea, and the evenings are chill, and the sky- 
is dull and grey, she remembers the promise of the boy. And 
she makes to him an offering of tiny white feathers plucked 
from the breasts of birds. She throws them into the air, 
and they appear as flakes of snow and rise thickly into the 
winds. And they hurry westward to teU the boy that the 
world is grey and dreary as it yearns for the sight of his golden 
face. Then he appears to the people of earth. He comes 
at evening and Hngers after the sun has gone, until the twihght 
sky is red, and the ocean in the west has gleams of golden 
light. And the people then know that there will be no wind 
and that on the morrow the weather will be fair, as he promised 
them long ago. 



HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE TO THE INDIANS 

MANY ages ago when the world was still young, 
Raven and White Sea-guU lived near together 
in Canada, far in the north country on the shores 
of the Great Water in the west. They were very good friends 
and they always worked in harmony and they had much 
food and many servants in common. White Sea-guU knew 
no guile ; he was always very open and frank and honest 
in his dealings with others. But Raven was a sly feUow, 
and at times he was not lacking in treachery and deceit. But 
Sea-gull did not suspect him, and the two hved always on 
very friendly terms. In these far-back times in the north 
country aU the world was dark and there was no light but 
that of the stars. Sea-gull owned all the daylight, but he 
was very stingy and he kept it always locked up in a box. 
He would give none of it to anyone else, and he never let it 
out of the box except when he needed a httle of it to help 
himself when he went far away on his journeys. 

After a time Raven grew envious of Sea-gull's possession. 
And he said, "It is not fair that Sea-guU should keep the 
daylight aU to himself locked up in a box. It was meant 

73 



74 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

for all the world and not for him alone, and it would be of 
great value to aU of us if he would sometimes let a little of 
it out/' So he went to Sea-gull and said, " Give me some 
of your daylight. You do not need it aU and I can use some 
of it with advantage." But Sea-guU said, " No. I want 
it aU for myself. What could you do with daylight, you 
with your coat as black as night ? " and he would not give 
him any of it. So Raven made up his mind that he would 
have to get some daylight from Sea-guU by stealth. 

Soon afterwards Raven gathered some prickly thorns 
and burdocks and scattered them on the ground between 
Sea-gull's house and the beach where the canoes were lying. 
Then he went to Sea-guU's window and cried loudly, " Our 
canoes are going adrift in the surf. Come quickly and help 
me to save them." Sea-gull sprang out of bed and ran half- 
asleep on his bare feet. But as he ran to the beach the thorns 
stuck in his bare flesh, and he howled with pain. He crawled 
back to his house, saying, " My canoe may go adrift if it 
pleases ; I cannot walk because of the splinters in my feet." 
Raven chuckled to himself, and he moved away, pretending 
to go to the beach to draw up the canoes. Then he went 
into Sea-gull's house. Sea-guU was stiU howling with pain ; 
he was sitting crying on the side of his bed and he was tr5dng 
to puU the thorns from his feet as best he could. " I wiU 
help you," said Raven, " for I have often done this before. 
I am a very good doctor." So he took an awl made from 



HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE TO THE INDIANS 75 

whale-bone and he caught hold of Sea-gull's foot, with the 
pretence of removing the thorns. But instead of taking them 
out he only pushed them in farther until poor Sea-guU 
howled louder than ever. And Raven said, "It is so dark 
I cannot see to puH these thorns from your feet. Give me 
some dayhght and I will soon cure you. A doctor must always 
have a Httle Hght." So Sea-guU unlocked the box and hfted 
the cover just a httle bit so that a faint gleam of hght came 
out. " That is better," said Raven. But instead of picking 
out the thorns he pushed them in as he had done before, 
until Sea-gull howled and kicked in pain. " Why are you 
so stingy with your hght ? " snapped Raven. " Do you 
think I am an owl and that I can see well enough in the 
darkness to heal your feet ? Open the box \vide and I will 
soon make you well." So saying he purposely fell heavily 
against Sea-guU and knocked the box on the floor. The 
cover flew open and dayhght escaped and spread quickly 
over all the world. Poor Sea-guU tried his best to lure it 
back again into the box, but his efforts proved fruitless, for 
it had gone for ever. Raven said he was very sorry for the 
accident, but after he had taken aU the thorns from Sea-guU's 
feet he went home laughing to himself and weU pleased because 
of the success of his trick. 

Soon there was hght in aU the world. But Raven could 
not see very weU, for the hght was too bright and his eyes 
were not accustomed to it. He sat for a time looking towards 



76 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

the east, but he saw there nothing of interest. The next 
day he saw a bit farther, for he was now getting used to the 
new conditions. The third day he could see distinctly a 
line of hills far in the east, rising against the sky, and covered 
with a blue mist. He looked long at the strange sight. Then 
he saw far away towards the hill a thin column of smoke 
lifting heavenwards. He had never seen smoke before, but 
he had often heard of it from travellers in strange places. 
" That must be the country of which I have been told," he 
said. " In that land dweU the people who alone possess Fire. 
We have searched for it for many ages and now I think we 
have found it." Then he thought, " We now have the day- 
light, and what a fine thing it would be if we could also have 
Fire," and he determined to set out to find it. 

On the following day he called his servants together and 
told them of his plans. He said, " We shall set out at once, 
for the distance is far." And he asked three of his best 
servants, Robin, Mole and Flea, to go with him. Flea 
brought out his httle wagon and they aU tried to get into 
it, but it was much too small to hold them. Then they tried 
Mole's carriage, but it was much too frail, and it had scarcely 
started to move when it broke down and they all feU out 
in a heap. Then they tried Robin's carriage, but it was 
much too high and it toppled over under its heavy load and 
threw them all to the ground. Then Raven stole Sea-gull's 
large strong carriage, for Sea-guU was asleep, and it did very 



HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE TO THE INDIANS ^j 

weU, and they started on their journey, taking turns pushing 
the carriage along with a pole over the flat plain. 

After a strange journey in queer places they reached the 
land of the people who owned Fire, guided along by the thin 
column of smoke. The people were not people of earth. 
Some say they were the Fish people, but that, no man knows. 
They sat around in a large circle with Fire in their midst, 
for it was autumn and the days and nights were chiU. And 
Fire was in many places. Raven looked on for a while from 
afar thinking of the best plan to obtain Fire. Then he said 
to Robin, " You can move faster than any of us. You must 
steal Fire. You can fly in quickly, pick it up in your biU 
and take it back to us and the people will not see nor hear 
you." So Robin picked out a spot where there were few 
people, and he darted in quickly and picked up fire in a 
twinkling and flew back unharmed towards his companions. 
But he had only taken a very httle bit of it. When he got 
half-way back to his friends. Fire was so hot in his biU that 
it gave him a strange pain and he had to drop it on the ground. 
It feU to the earth with a crash and it was so small that it 
flickered faintly. Robin called to his companions to bring 
the carriage. Then he stood over Fire and fanned it with 
his wings to keep it ahve. It was very hot, but he stood 
bravely to his task until his breast was badly scorched and 
he had to move away. His efforts to save Fire were of no 
avail, and before his companions reached him Fire had died, 



78 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

and only a black coal remained. And poor Robin's breast 
was singed, and to this day the breasts of his descendants 
are a reddish-brown colour because he was scorched while 
trying to steal Fire ages ago. 

Then Raven asked Flea to make the attempt to steal 
Fire. But Flea said, " I am too little. The heat would 
roast me to death ; and, further, I might miscalculate the 
distance and hop into the flame." Then Raven asked Mole 
to try, but Mole said, " Oh no, I am better fitted for other 
work. My fur would all be singed Hke Robin's breast." 
Raven took good care that he would not go himself, for he 
was a great coward. So he said, " There is a better and 
easier way. We will steal the baby of the Chief and hold 
him for ransom. Perhaps they will give us Fire in exchange 
for him," and they all thought this was a very good idea. 
Raven asked, " Who will volunteer to steal the baby ? " 
for he always made the others do all the work. Flea said, 
" I wiU go. In one jump I will be into the house, and in 
another jump I wiU be out again, for I can hop a great dis- 
tance." But the others laughed and said, " You could not 
carry the baby ; you are too smaU." The Mole said, " I 
will go. I can tunnel a passage very quietly under the house 
and right up to the baby's cradle. I can then steal the 
baby and no one wiU hear me or see me." So it was agreed 
that Mole should go. In a few minutes Mole made his 
tunnel, and he was soon back with the baby. Then they 




THEN RAVEN ASKED THE MOLE TO TRY. BUT MOLE RAID, OH. NO. I AM 
BETTER FITTED FOR OTHER WOR.<,-~MY FUR WOULD ALL BE SINGED" 



HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE TO THE INDIANS 79 

got into their carriage and hurried home with their prize. 
When the Chief of the Fire people discovered the loss 
of his child he was very angry. And in aU the land there 
was great sorrow because the Chief's heir, the hope of the 
tribe, had gone. And the child's mother and her women 
wept so bitterly that their tears feU like rain on aU the land. 
The Chief said he would give anything he possessed to find 
his child. But although his people searched far and near, 
they could not find the baby. After many days a wayfarer 
who had come far from the Great Water in the west brought 
them nev/s that a strange child was living far to the westward 
in the village by the sea. He said, " He is not of their tribe. 
He looks like the children of your village," and he advised 
them to go to see him for themselves. So the Chief sent 
his men to search for them guided by the wayfarer. When 
they reached Raven's village they were told that a strange 
baby was indeed there ; the child was described to them, 
but he was kept out of sight, and Raven would not teU how 
he had happened to come there. And Raven said, " How 
do I know he is your Chief's child ? People teU strange lies 
these days. If you want him you can pay for him, for he 
has caused us much trouble and expense." So the messengers 
went back and reported to the Chief what they had heard. 
From the description, the Chief knew that the child was his, 
so he gave the messengers very valuable presents of pearls 
and rich robes and sent them back again to ransom his boy. 



8o CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

But Raven, when he saw the presents, said, " No, I do not 
want these gifts ; they do not pay me for my trouble," and 
he would not part with the baby. The messengers again 
reported to the Chief what had happened. Then the Chief 
gave them still richer gifts, the best he had in aU his land, 
and sent them back. But again Raven said, " No, your 
gifts are valueless, compared with my trouble and expense. 
Say this to your Chief." 

When the Chief heard this from his messengers he was 
sore perplexed, for he had offered the best he had, and he 
thought that he had reached the end of his resources. So 
he said, " Go back and ask the people to demand what they 
wish in exchange for my boy and they will receive it if it 
can be provided." So the messengers went back to Raven 
and spoke as they had been commanded. And Raven said, 
" Only one thing can pay for the child, and that is Fire. Give 
me Fire and you can take the baby." The messenger laughed 
and said, " Why did you not say so at first and save us all 
this trouble and anxiety ? Fire is the most plentiful thing 
in our kingdom, and we hold it in no value." So they returned 
happy to the Chief. And he sent back much Fire and received 
his child imharmed from Raven in exchange. And he sent 
Raven two small stones which the messengers taught Raven 
how to use. And they said, " If you ever lose Fire or if it 
dies for lack of food you can always call it back to Hfe with 
these two little stones." Then they showed him how to 



HOW RAVEN BROUGHT FIRE TO THE INDIANS 8i 

make Fire with the two Httle stones and withered grass, and 
birch-bark and dry pine, and Raven thought it was very 
easy. And he felt very proud because he had brought Fire 
and Light to the earth. He kept Fire for himself for a long 
time, and although the people clamoured loudly for it, he 
would not give any of it away. Soon, however, he decided 
to seU a quantity of it, for he now had the power of making 
it. So he said to himself, " This is a good way to get many 
wives," and he announced that he would only seU some of 
his fire in return for a wife. And many families bought his 
fire and in exchange he received many wives. And to this 
day he stiU has many wives and he stiU moves about from 
place to place with a flock of them always around him. But 
the Indians when they arrived took Fire away from him. 
Thus Fire came to the Indians in the olden days. And when 
it has died, as it often does, they stiU sometimes use Raven's 
flint stones to bring it back to life. 



THE GIRL WHO ALWAYS CRIED 

ON the bank of a stream far in the West, Owl-man 
lived long ago in a little house under the ground. 
He had very strange habits. He always kept 
away from the Great Water and he dwelt for the most part 
in the forest. He had very few friends, and he usually went 
hunting by himself. He lived on toads and frogs and flies. 
He would say but little, and when other people sat around 
him talking pleasantly, he was always silent, gazing into 
space with wide-open eyes, and trying to look wiser than 
he really was. Because of this, people thought he was very 
queer, and strange stories about him soon spread far and 
wide. It was said that he was very cruel, and that he was 
silent because he was always brooding over his past wicked- 
ness or thinking about some evil deed he was soon going to 
do. And when children were troublesome or disobedient, 
their mothers always frightened them into goodness by saying, 
"The Owl-man from the stream wiU come and take you if 
you do not mend your ways." And although the Owl-man 
was a solitary fellow he thus had great influence in all the 
land. 

82 



THE GIRL WHO ALWAYS CRIED 83 

Not far away lived a man and a woman who had one 
adopted daughter. Because she was the only child in the 
house she was much petted, and she was never satisfied, and 
she cried and fretted all the time, and kept always asking 
for things she could not get. She disturbed aU the neigh- 
bours round about so that they could not sleep because of 
her constant wailing and complaining. At last her foster- 
parents grew tired of her weeping and they said, " The Owl- 
man wiU carry you off if you do not stop cr3dng." But still 
she pouted and fretted. And the old man of the house said, 
" I wish the Owl-man would come and take her away." Now 
the old man was a great magician, and as he wished, so it 
came to pass. 

That evening it happened that the people were gathered 
at a feast of sheU-fish on the beach by the bright moonlight, 
as was their weekly custom. But the sorrowful girl would 
not go with the others. She stayed at home and sulked. 
As she sat alone in the house, old Owl-man came along 
carrying his basket full of toads and frogs. The girl was 
stiU crying when he came in. "I have come for you," he 
said, " as the old man wished." And he put her in his basket 
with the toads and frogs and carried her off. She yelled and 
kicked and scratched, but the lid of the basket was tightly 
closed and Owl-man laughed to himself and said, " Now I 
have a wife at last. I shall be alone no more, and the people 
will not now think I am so queer." So he took her to his 



84 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

underground house by the stream. That night the people 
noticed that the girl's cries were no longer heard and they 
said, " What can have cured Sour-face ; what can have 
pleased Cry-Baby into silence ? " And the girl's foster- 
mother wondered where she had gone. But only the old 
man knew that it had happened as he had wished, because 
of his magic power, and that Owl-man had taken her away. 
The girl was not happy in her new home, for she would not 
be happy in any place. She stiU kept up her caterwauhng 
and there was no peace in the house. Owl-man was a great 
hunter. Every day he went out hunting with his big basket 
on his arm, but he always locked his wife in the house before 
he went away. He was always very successful in the chase, 
and each night he came back with his basket full of toads 
and frogs and field-mice and flies. But his wife would eat 
none of them and she threw them in his face when he offered 
them to her, and said in a bad temper, " I wiU not eat your 
filthy food. It is not fit food for gentle-folk." And Owl- 
man said, " Gentle-folk indeed ! You should find a more 
suitable name ; you are not gentle ; you are a wild evil 
thing, but I am going to tame you." And the girl wept 
again and sulked and stamped her feet in her temper. 

At last the girl became very hungry, for there was little 
to eat except the food that Owl-man brought home for 
himself. He gathered a few berries for her, but even these 
did not satisfy her hunger. So she thought out a plan of 



THE GIRL WHO ALWAYS CRIED 85 

escape. One day when Owl-man was away, she took some 
oil she found in the house and rubbed it aU over her face 
and hair. When Owl-man came home in the evening, he 
said, " You are very pretty to-night. What have you done 
to make yourself look so sleek and shiny?" And she 
answered, " I have put on my face and hair gum which I 
picked from the trees last night when I went walking with 
you." And he said, " I should like to put some on too, for 
perhaps it would make me beautiful." The girl told him 
that if he would go out and gather some gum she would put 
it on his face and hair for him. So he went out and gathered 
a great store of gum from the trees and brought it back to 
her. She melted it on a hot stove until it was balsam again 
and would pour easily out. Then she said, " Shut your eyes 
so that it will not harm your sight, and I will make your face 
and hair beautiful and shining like mine." Owl-man shut 
his eyes, and the girl soon covered his face and head with 
the soft gum. She put it on very thick, and she said, " Keep 
your eyes shut until it dries or it may blind you." Owl- 
man did as he was told, but when the gum dried he could 
not open his eyes, and while he was trying to rub it off, the 
girl sHpped out the door and ran back to her parents, far 
away by the Great Water. 

Owl-man scraped the gum from his face and head as best 
he could, and when he could open his eyes again and could see 
pretty well, he went out iato the night in search of his wife. 



86 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

And as he went along he cried, " Oh, oh, oh, where is my 
wife ? Where is my girl ? I have lost my wife. I have 
lost my girl. Oh, oh, oh." And when the people heard 
him calling they thought they would play a trick on him. 
So they said, " She is here, she is here." But when he 
entered their houses, the woman they showed him was not 
his wife, and he went away sorrowful. And the people aU 
laughed at his confusion, and said, " Owl-man is getting 
queerer each day. He is far gone in his head." Owl-man 
went from house to house, but he could not find his wife. 
Then he went to the trees and searched among the branches. 
He pulled the trees up by the roots, thinking she might be 
hiding underneath. And he looked into the salmon- traps 
in the rivers, and kicked them to pieces in his frenzy. But 
nowhere was his wife to be found. 

Then he went to the girl's house, where she was hiding, 
and he yeUed, " Oh, oh, oh, give me my wife. Give me my 
girl. I know she is here. Oh, oh, oh." But the girl's foster- 
mother would not give her up. Then he began to tear down 
the house over their heads, for the old man of the house was 
away and there was no one else strong enough to stop Owl- 
man in his rage. When the woman saw her house in danger 
of falling about her ears, she cried, " Stop; your wife is here." 
And she brought forth the girl from her hiding-place. When 
Owl-man saw her, his rage left him and he was happy again. 

But just then the old man of magic power came home. 




AND WITH HIS MAGIC POWER HE CHANGED HER INTO 
A FISH-HAWK AND SENT HER OUT TO THE OCEAN 



THE GIRL WHO ALWAYS CRIED 87 

He had heard the hub-hub from a distance. When he came 
in and saw the great holes in the roof and the side of his house 
where Owl-man had torn away the logs, he was very angry 
and he said to himself, " I wiU punish both Owl-man and 
the girl for this night's work." And he hit upon a plan. He 
said to Owl-man, " We must give you a hot bath to melt 
the gum and take it from your hair, for it wiU do you no good, 
and it will take all the hair off your head." And Owl-man 
gladly agreed. So they filled a great bark tub with water 
and heated it by placing at the bottom of it many red-hot 
stones, after the fashion of Indians in those old days. But 
the old man put so many hot stones in the water that it was 
soon almost boiling with the heat, and when they put Owl- 
man into the tub he was almost scalded to death and he 
yeUed loudly in pain. Then the old man said, " Now I will 
take vengeance. You wiU trouble me no more. You have 
broken my house. Henceforth you wiU be not a man but 
an Owl, and you wiU dwell alone in the forest with few friends, 
and you will live always on frogs and toads and field-mice, 
and people will hear you at night crying for your wife all 
over the land, but you shall never find her." Then with 
his magic power he changed him to an Owl and sent him 
on his way. 

He said to the girl, " You have done me much harm too, 
and you have brought aU this trouble upon me. Henceforth 
you wiU be not a girl but a Fish-Hawk, and you wiU always 



88 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

cry and fret and scream as you have done before, and you 
wiU never be satisfied." And with his magic power he changed 
her into a Fish-Hawk, and sent her out to the ocean. And 
there she screams always, and she is a great glutton, for she 
can never get enough to eat. And since that time, Owl and 
Fish-Hawk have not dwelt together and have not been on 
friendly terms. They five far apart, and Owl keeps to the 
forest and the mountains, while the other keeps to the sea. 
Thus was the old man avenged, and thus was the weeping 
maiden punished for her teairs. And the cries of Owl and 
Fish-Hawk are stiU heard in many places, one calling for his 
wife, the other screaming unsatisfied for something she cannot 
get. 



ERMINE AND THE HUNTER 

FAR away in the Canadian North Country an old man 
lived with his wife and children. They lived far 
from other people, but they were never lonely, for 
they had much work to do. The old man was a great hunter, 
and in s-ummer he and his wife and children Uved on the fish 
and game he captured in the winter. In the spring-time 
he gathered sap from the maple trees, from which he made 
maple syrup and maple sugar with which to sweeten their 
food. One day in summer he found three small bears eating 
his stock of sugar. When he came upon them, his sugar 
was aU gone, and he was very cross. With a stout club he 
killed the Httle bears and skinned them and dried their meat. 
But his wife said, " No good can come of it. You should 
not have killed the three little bears, for they were too young 
for slaughter." 

The next day the old Bear came along, looking for his 
lost children. When he saw their skins hanging up to dry 
he knew that they had been killed by the hunter. He was 
very sad and angry, and he called to the hunter, " You have 
killed my Httle motherless cubs, and in return for that 

89 



90 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

wickedness, some night when you are off your guard I wiU 
kill your children, and then I will kill you and your wife, 
and I will devour all your food." The old man shot at him 
with his arrows, but the arrows did not harm him, for he was 
Brown Bear of the Stony Heart, and he could not be killed 
by man. For many nights and days the old man tried to 
trap him, but he met with no success. And each day he saw 
his store of food growing smaller, for Bear of the Stony Heart 
stole it always in the night. And he thought, " We shall 
all surely starve before the winter comes, and game is plentiful 
again." 

One day in despair he resolved to look about him for some 
one who would teU him how to kill the Bear. He went to 
the bank of the river and sat there in thought and smoked 
long at his pipe. And he caUed to the God of the River and 
said, " Oh, River-God, help me to drown Bear when he comes 
to fish." The river came from the Lime Stone country far 
back among the rocks, and it was flowing rapidly to the sea. 
And the River-God said, " My water cannot tarry. There 
are millions of oysters down on the ocean shore waiting for 
shells, and I am hurrying down there with the lime to make 
them," and he rushed quickly past. 

Then the old man called to the Spirit of the Wind, and 
he said, " Oh, Spirit of the Wind, stay here with me to-night 
and help me to kiU Bear of the Stony Heart. You can knock 
down great trees upon his back and crush him to the earth." 



ERMINE AND THE HUNTER 91 

But the Wind Spirit said, " I cannot linger. Many ships 
with rich cargoes he silent on the ocean waiting to sail, and 
I must hurry along with the force to drive them/' And Hke 
the River-God he hastened on his way. 

Then the old man called to Storm Cloud, which was just 
then passing over his head, and he said, " Oh, Spirit of the 
Storm Cloud, stay here with me to-night and help me to kill 
Bear of the Stony Heart, for he seeks to destroy my children. 
You can send hghtning and thunder to strike him dead." 
But the Storm Cloud said, " I cannot loiter on the way. Far 
from here there are millions of blades of com and grass dying 
from thirst in the summer heat, for I see the heat waves rising 
on the earth, and I am hun:ying there with rain to save them." 
And like the River-God and the Wind Spirit he hurried along 
on his business. The poor old man was in great sorrow, 
for it seemed that no one would help him to rid the land of 
Bear of the Stony Heart. 

As he sat wondering what he should do, an old woman 
came along. She said, " I am very hungry and tired, for I 
have come far. Will you give me food and let me rest here 
a while ? " And he said, " We have very httle food, for Bear 
of the Stony Heart steals it from us nightly, but you may 
share with us what httle we have." So he went away and 
brought back to her a good fat meal. While she was eating 
her dinner he told her of his troubles with Bear, and he said 
that no one would help him to get rid of the pest, and that 



92 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

Bear could not be killed by man. And the old woman said, 
" There is a little animal who can kill Bear of the Stony 
Heart. He alone can save you. You have done weU to 
me. Here is a wand which I wiU give you. Go to sleep 
here, soon, on the bank of the river. Wave this wand before 
you sleep and say what I shall teach you, and when you awake 
call to you the first animal you see when you open your eyes. 
He will be the animal of which I speak, and he will rid you 
of the Bear." She taught him a little rhyme and gave him 
a wand which she took from the basket on her arm ; then 
she hobbled away, and the old man knew that she was the 
weird woman of the Fairy Blue Mountain, of whom he had 
often heard. He marvelled greatly, but he resolved to do 
as she had told him. 

After the old woman had gone, the man waved the little 
wand three times, and cried : 

" Animal, animal, come from your lair, 
Help me to slaughter the old Brown Bear ! 
Make with my magic a little white dart. 
To pierce in the centre old Bear's Stony Heart ! " 

He repeated the rhyme three times. Then he felt himself 

getting drowsy and sleep soon came upon him. He slept 

but a short time when the heat woke Mm up, for the hot sun 

beat down upon him. He rubbed his eyes and looked about 

him. Watching him from behind a tree was a Httle animal 

with a shaggy brown coat. The old man thought to himself, 

"Surely the weird fairy woman of the Blue Mountain has 



ERMINE AND THE HUNTER 93 

played a trick on me. That scraggy little animal with the 
dirty coat cannot kill the Bear/' But he resolved to test 
her word. He repeated his rhjmie again, and the Httle animal 
came quickly towards him. " Who are you ? " said the 
man. " I am Ermine," said the Httle animal. " Are you 
the animal of which the fairy woman of the Blue Hills has 
told me ? " asked the man. " I am indeed the same," said 
Ermine. " I have been sent to you to kill the Bear, and 
here I have the little darts made powerful because of your 
magic wand." He pointed to his mouth and showed the 
old man his sharp white teeth. " So now to your task," said 
the old man in high spirits. " Oh, not so fast," said Ermine, 
''you must first pay me for my work." "What can I do 
for you ? " asked the man. *' I am ashamed of my dirty 
brown coat, which I have worn for a long time," said the 
animal ; " you have great magic from the wand you received 
from the fairy woman of the Blue Hills. I want a sleek and 
shining white coat that I can wear always, for I want to be 
clean." The man waved his wand again and wished for what 
the animal had asked him, and at once the shaggy brown coat 
of Ermine was replaced by a sleek and shining white coat 
as spotless as the new snow in winter. Then the ardmai 
said, " I have one more condition to impose on you. You 
must promise never to kill a bear's young cubs when they 
are still following their mother in the summer time. You 
must give them a chance to grow strong, so that they may 



94 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

be able to fight for their own lives.'* And the man promised, 
placing his hand upon the wand to bind his oath. Then, 
when he looked again, the wand had vanished from his hand. 
It had gone back through the air to the fairy woman of the 
Blue HiHs. 

Then Ermine set out on his search for Bear. The after- 
noon was very hot, and the forest was stiU, and not a leaf 
or a blade of grass was stirring, and there was not a ripple 
on the stream. The whole world was drowsy in the dry 
summer heat. But Ermine did not feel the heat, he was 
in such high spirits because of his new white coat. Soon 
he came upon Bear, stretched out at fuU length on the bank 
of the river, taking his afternoon nap, as was his custom after 
his fat midday meal. He was Ipng on his back, and his 
mouth was open wide, and he was snoring loudly Hke a water- 
fall. "This is your last sleep," said Ermine, creeping softly 
to his side, " for you are a dangerous thief ; you shaU snore 
no more." And with a bound he jumped down Bear's throat, 
and in an instant had pierced with his teeth his strong stony 
heart, which the arrows of the Indians could never reach. 
Then as quickly as he had entered the Bear's mouth Ermine 
jumped out again and ran from the place. Bear snored no 
more ; he was quite dead, and the land was rid of his thefts 
and terrors. Then Ermine went back to the old man and 
told him that the deed was done ; and that night was a 
great feast night in the old man's home. And since that 




THE COAT OF ERMINE WAS REPLACED BY A SLEEK AND SHINING 
WHITE COAT, AS SPOTLESS AS THE NEW SNOW IN WINTER 



ERMINE AND THE HUNTER 95 

time Ermine in the North Country has worn a sleek white 
coat as spotless as the new snow in winter. And to this day 
the hunters in the fax north will not kill, if they can avoid 
it, the young Bear cubs while they are still following their 
mothers through the forest. They give them a chance to 
grow up and grow strong, so that they may be able to fight for 
their own Hves, as the fairy woman of the Blue Hills had 
asked. 



HOW RABBIT DECEIVED FOX 

LONG ago in Indian days in Canada, when Rabbit 
worked for Glooskap as his forest guide, he was 
■^ a great thief. He Hked most of all to steal by 
moonlight, and he crept quietly into gardens and fields 
where Indian vegetables were growing, for he was very 
fond of cabbage and lettuce and beans. Not far from his 
home there lived alone an old widow woman who had no 
children. She could not hunt game because she was a woman, 
and she had never been trained to the chase, so she kept a 
Httle garden from which she made a good living. AH day 
long from dawn until sunset she toiled hard, tilling her little 
garden, watering her vegetables and keeping them free from 
weeds. And she grew green cabbages and red carrots and 
yellow beans and big fat pumpkins and Indian com, which 
she traded with Indian hunters in return for fish and meat. 
In this way she always had plenty of food, and she Hved very 
weU on good fare. But Rabbit, going his rounds one day, 
discovered her garden, although it was deep in the forest, 
and every night by moonlight or starlight he robbed it, and 
grew sleek and fat from the results of his thefts. And mom- 

96 



HOW RABBIT DECEIVED FOX 97 

ing after morning the old widow woman found that many- 
cabbages and carrots were missing and that much harm had 
been done to her plants. She had an idea that Rabbit was 
the pUferer, for she had heard that he was a great thief, but 
she was not very sure. She watched many nights, but she 
was never able to catch the robber, so stealthily did he come, 
and it was not easy to see him in the shadows. So she said 
to herself, " I will set up a scarecrow, a figure in the shape 
of a little man, and I will place it at my garden gate, and it 
win frighten away the robber, whoever he may be, for I must 
save my vegetables or I shall starve when the cold winter 
oomes." 

She picked from the spruce and the fir trees close by a 
great store of gum and balsam. This she formed into a 
figure in the shape of a Httle man. She made two eyes from 
glass beads that would shine like fire in the starlight, and 
a nose from a pine cone, and hair from the com tassels 
and yellow moss. Then she placed the figure at the 
entrance to the garden where she knew the robber would 
come. " Now,'* she thought, " I will scare away the 
thief." 

When night fell and the moon rose above the trees, Rabbit 
came along, as was his custom, to steal his nightly meal. 
As he came near the garden very softly, he saw in the moon- 
Ught what he thought was a man standing in the path by 
the garden gate. The moon hung low over the forest, and 

H 



98 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

there was a thin grey mist on the earth, for it was near to 
autumn and the nights were already cool ; and the figure 
of the little man looked larger than human in the misty Hght, 
and it cast a long black shadow like that of a giant on the 
grass. Rabbit was much afraid and he trembled hke an 
aspen leaf, but he stood quiet behind a tree and watched the 
strange figure. For a long time he stood stiU and watched 
and listened. But the strange figure did not move, and not 
a sound did Rabbit hear but the chirp of a cricket. Then 
with great caution he came closer. But still the figure did 
not move. Then his fear left him and he grew bolder, for 
he was very hungry, and he could smeU the vegetables and 
the wild honeysuckle in the stiU night air. So he walked 
bravely up to the little dummy man and said, " Get out of 
my way and let me pass." But the man did not move. 
Then Rabbit struck the man a sharp blow with his fist. But 
stiU the figure did not move. Rabbit's fist stuck fast in the 
gum and he could not puU it away. Then he struck out with 
his other fist, and it too, hke the other, was held firm. " I 
shall kick you," said Rabbit in a rage. " Take that," and 
he struck out wildly with his foot. But his foot, like his fists, 
stuck fast. Then he kicked with the other foot, but that too 
was held in the gum. Rabbit was now very cross, and in 
his anger he said, " Now I shall bite you," but when he bit 
the little man, his teeth, Hke his feet and hands, stuck fast. 
Then he pushed with his body with aU his might, hoping to 



HOW RABBIT DECEIVED FOX 99 

knock the little man down, but his whole body stuck to the 
dummy figure. 

He cried out loudly, for he was now beside himself with 
fear, and the old woman, when she heard his yeUs, came running 
out of her house. " Aha ! " she said, " so you are the robber 
who has been stealing from my garden. I will rid the world 
of a pilfering pest, for I will kill you this very night." Then 
she puUed him away from the gum figure and put him in 
a strong bag and tied the mouth of the bag with a stout string. 
She left the bag on the path by the garden gate and went 
to look for her axe to kill Rabbit. While Rabbit lay there 
wondering how he was going to escape. Fox came prowling 
along. He stumbled over the bag, for he did not see it in 
the shadows, and he plunged forward headlong to the ground 
with a great thud. He got up and rained kicks upon the 
bag. He was mad because he had been tripped. He kicked 
poor Rabbit's back until Rabbit cried in pain. " Who are 
you in the bag ? " asked Fox when he heard the cries. " I 
am your friend Rabbit," was the answer. " What are you 
doing, hiding in the bag ? " asked Fox. Then Rabbit suddenly 
thought of a way of escape. He knew that Fox had long 
been looking for a wife, but that no one would have him 
as no one trusted him because his fame for treachery 
and slyness was so great. " I am not hiding," he said. " The 
old woman who owns this garden wants me to marry her 
grand-daughter, and when I refused to do it she caught me 



100 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

and shut me up in this bag ; she has just gone to bring 
the girl from her house, for she is determined to make me 
marry her here in the moonlight this very night. I don't 
want to marry her, for she is very big and fat, and I am very 
smaU and lean." Then he cried " Boo-hoo-hoo " again, 
and Fox said, " I have been looking for a wife for a long time, 
and I like fat people. Let me get into the bag in your place, 
and I will marry the grand-daughter instead, for the old 
woman wiU not know me in the shadows." And Rabbit 
gladly agreed. Then Fox untied the bag and let Rabbit 
out and got into the bag himself, and Rabbit tied up the mouth 
of the bag and hurried away as quickly as he could. 

Soon the old woman came back, carrying her axe. She 
sharpened it on a stone and said, " Now I wiU kOl you, and 
you will thieve no more in my garden. A poor woman must 
live untroubled by such pilfering rogues." When Fox heard 
these words and the sound of the stone upon the axe, he knew 
that he had been deceived by Rabbit, and when the old woman 
opened the bag he sprang nimbly out with a sudden bound 
and was away before she could catch him. He swore by 
the Starlight that he would have vengeance on Rabbit. AQ 
night long he searched for him and aU the next day, but he 
could not find him. At last in the gathering twihght he 
came upon him in an open space in the forest, on the other 
side of a stream, eating his fill of wild vegetables. Fox tried 
to coax him across the stream to his side, for he himself was 




THEN FOX UNTIED THE BAG AND LET RABBIT 
OUT AND GOT INTO THE BAG HIMSELF 



HOW RABBIT DECEIVED FOX loi 

afraid of the water, but Rabbit would not go. " Why don't 
you eat some cheese ? " said Rabbit ; " there is a big round 
cheese in the stream.'* Fox looked into the stream where 
Rabbit pointed, and there he saw the reflection of the big 
round yellow moon. He thought it was a round cheese, and 
he plunged in after it, for he was very fond of cheese. Rabbit 
hoped he would be drowned, but the stream was shallow and 
Fox climbed out with no cheese and with only a bad fright 
and a wet coat for his pains. He was very cross, for he knew 
that Rabbit wished to do him harm, but he kept his anger 
to himself. Rabbit was still eating contentedly. 

" What are you eating ? " said Fox, trying to hold him 
in talk until he could think of a plan to catch him. " I am 
eating good ripe fruit," said Rabbit. " I am eating Indian 
melons." " Throw me one," said Fox, for he was hungry. 
Rabbit threw him a large roimd wild cucumber aU covered 
with green prickles. " Swallow it whole at a mouthful," 
said Rabbit ; "it is very good that way." It was night 
and the moon shone dimly through the trees, and Fox could 
not see what he was eating. He swallowed the cucumber 
at one gulp, as Rabbit had told him, but the prickles stuck 
in his throat and he almost choked to death. And while he 
was choking and spluttering and tr5dng to cough up the 
cucumber. Rabbit ran away as fast as he could, laughing 
heartily to himself. Fox knew that he had been tricked 
again, and this time he swore he would kiU Rabbit as soon 



102 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

as he could find Iiim ; he resolved that when next he saw 
him he would not give him a moment to live. 

Rabbit hid among the dry underbrush all the next day. 
But when the day went down and the sky was red in the 
west and the wind was very still, he sat on a log, as was his 
custom, and played softly on his flute, for he was a great 
player on the Indian pipe. While he was playing, Fox sud- 
denly came upon him unawares. Rabbit saw him watching 
him through the trees close at hand, but although taken by 
smprise, he was not to be outdone. Fox was just about 
to spring upon him when Rabbit said, " The Chief's daughter 
has just been married to a great warrior, and the wedding 
party wiU soon be along this way. They asked me to sit 
here and make music for them with my flute as they pass 
by. They have promised to pay me weU, and they have 
invited me to the wedding feast. Come and join me and 
play too, and you will be weU paid, and we wiU go to the 
wedding feast together and get good things to eat." Fox 
thought he would let Rabbit get the pay he had been pro- 
mised, for he was a very greedy fellow ; then he would rob 
him and kill him, and he would take his flute and go to 
the wedding feast alone, and his vengeance would then be 
complete. So he decided to let his anger cool for a httle 
time. And he said, " I have no flute, and I cannot therefore 
make music ; but I wiU sit with you to see the wedding 
guests go by." But Rabbit said, " Take my flute. I have 



HOW RABBIT DECEIVED FOX 103 

another at home. I wiQ go and get it, for there is j-et 
time." 

So Fox took the flute and began to play loudly, and Rabbit 
slipped hurriedly out of sight, pretending to go for his Indian 
pipe. But he resolved to make an end of Fox, for he feared 
for his own Hfe, and instead of going home, he set the 
underbrush on fire. He kindled the fire at many places aH 
around the log on which Fox sat. Fox could not hear the 
j5re crackling because of the loud music of his flute, and he 
thought the light was but the bright light of the moon. And 
the fire was almost upon him before he knew that he was in 
danger. Then he tried to get away, but on all sides his escape 
was stopped by the flames and he could not find an opening. 
At last, in despair, to save his Hfe, he jumped through the ring 
of fire. He escaped with his life, but his eyelids were singed, 
and his sleek black coat with its silver spots was scorched 
to a red-brown colour. He was in great pain. He concluded 
that Rabbit was too clever for him to cope with, and he 
resolved to leave him alone and to forego his revenge, for he 
was glad to get away with his life. But he decided never 
again to live on friendly terms with Rabbit. And since that 
night Rabbit and Fox have never hunted together. And to 
the present day the descendants of this Fox have red eyes 
and a red-brown coat, because Rabbit scorched their ancestor 
in the olden times. 



THE BOY AND THE DRAGON 

ONCE, long ago, before the white man came to Canada, 
a boy was hving with his parents in a village near 
the ocean. As he had no brothers or sisters, 
he was often lonely, and he longed for adventure and 
companionship. At last he decided to set out to seek his 
fortune elsewhere. He was just on the point of leaving his 
home when it was noised abroad one day that there had 
come into the land a great dragon, who was doing great havoc 
and damage wherever he went. The country was in great 
terror, for the dragon carried off women and children and 
devoured them one by one. And what was still more 
mystifying, he had power to take on human form, and often 
he changed himself into a man of pleasing shape and manner 
and came among the people to carry out his cruel designs 
before they knew that he was near. The Chief of the tribe 
called for volunteers to meet the dragon-man, but none of 
his warriors responded. They were strong and mighty in 
combat with men, but it was a different matter to encounter 
a dragon. 

When the youth heard this dreadful story and saw the 

104 



THE BOY AND THE DRAGON 105 

terror of his people, he said, " Here is my chance to do a 
great deed," for somehow he felt that he had more than 
human power. So he said good-bye to his parents and 
set out on his adventure. He travelled all day inland 
through the forest, until at evening he came to a high hill 
in the centre of an open space. He said, " I will cHmb this 
hill, and perhaps I can see all the country round about me." 
So he went slowly to the top. As he stood there, looking 
over the country which he could see for many miles around, 
a man suddenly appeared beside him. He was a very 
pleasant fellow, and they talked together for some time. 
The boy was on his guard, but he thought, " Surely 
this man with the good looks cannot be the dragon," 
and he laughed at his suspicions and put them from his 
mind. 

The stranger said, " Where are you going ? " And the 
boy answered, "I am going far away. I am seeking 
adventure in the forest for it is very lonely down by the 
sea." But he did not tell him of his real errand. " You 
may stay with me to-night," said the new-comer. " I have 
a very comfortable lodge not far from here, and I will give 
you food." The boy was very hungry and tired, and he went 
along with the man to his lodge. When they reached the 
house the boy was surprised to see a great heap of bleached 
bones lying before the door. But he showed no fear nor 
did he comment on the horrible sight. Inside the lodge sat 



io6 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

a very old and bent woman, tending a pot. She was stirring 
it with a big stick, and the boy saw that it contained meat 
stew. When she placed the stew before them, the boy said 
he would rather have corn, for he feared to taste the meat. 
The old woman fried some com for him, and he had a good 
meal. 

After they had eaten, the man went out to gather wood 
for the fire, and the boy sat talking to the old woman. 
And she said to him, " You are very young and beautiful 
and innocent — the most handsome I have yet seen in this 
place. And because of that, I wiU take pity on you and 
warn you of your danger. The man whom you met in 
the forest and whom you supped with to-night is none other 
than the dragon-man of whom you have often heard. He 
cannot be killed in ordinary combat, and it would be foUy 
for you to try. To-morrow he wiU kill you if you are still 
here. Take these moccasins that I will give you, and in 
the morning when you get up put them on your feet. With 
one step you wiU reach by their power the hiU you see in 
the distance. Give this piece of birch bark with the 
picture on it to a man you wiU meet there, and he wiU teU 
you what next to do. But remember that no matter how 
far you go, the dragon-man will overtake you in the even- 
ing." The youth took the moccasins and the birch bark 
bearing the mystic sign and hid them under his coat, and 
said, " I will do as you advise." But the woman said. 



THE BOY AND THE DRAGON 107 

" There is one more condition. You must kUl me in the 
morning before you go, and put this robe over my body. 
Then the dragon-man's spell over me will be broken, and 
when he leaves me, I will rouse myself with my power back 
to Hfe." 

The youth went to sleep, and the dragon-man slept all 
night beside him so as not to let him escape. The next 
morning, when the dragon-man was out to get water from 
the stream some distance away, the boy at once carried out 
the old woman's orders of the night before. First of all he 
killed the old woman with a blow and covered her body with 
a bright cloak, for he knew that when the dragon-man 
would leave the place she would soon rise again. Then he 
put the magic moccasins on his feet and with one great step 
he reached the distant hill. Here, sure enough, he met an 
old man. He gave him the piece of birch bark bearing 
the mystic sign. The man looked at it closely and smiled 
and said, "So it is you I was told to wait for. That is weU, 
for you are indeed a comely youth." The man gave him 
another pair of moccasins in exchange for those he was 
wearing, and another piece of birch bark bearing another 
inscription. He pointed to a hiU that rose blue in the 
distance and said, " With one step you wiU reach that hill. 
Give this bark to a man you will meet there, and all wiU be 
well." 

The boy put the moccasins on his feet, and with one step 



io8 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

he reached the distant hiU. There he met another old man, 
to whom he gave the birch bark. This man gave him another 
pair of moccasins and a large maple leaf bearing a strange 
symbol, and told him to go to another spot, where he would 
receive final instructions. He did as he was told, and here 
he met a very old man, who said, " Down yonder there is 
a stream. Go towards it and walk straight into it, as if you 
were on dry ground. But do not look at the water. Take 
this piece of birch bark bearing these magic figures, and it 
wiU change you into whatever you wish, and it will keep you 
from harm." The boy took the bark and did as he was told, 
and soon found himself on the opposite bank of the 
stream. He followed the stream for some distance, and at 
evening he came to a lake. As he was looking about 
for a warm place to pass the night, he suddenly came 
upon the dragon-man, now in the form of a monster 
dragon, hiding behind the trees. The old woman's 
words had come true, for his enemy had overtaken him 
before nightfall, as she had said. There was no time 
to lose, so the boy waved his magic bark, and at once he 
became a httle fish with red fins, moving slowly in the 
lake. 

When the dragon-man saw the little fish, he cried, 
" Little fish of the red fins, have you seen the youth I am 
looking for?" "No, sir," said the Httle fish, "I have 
seen no one ; I have been asleep. But if he passes this 




THE MAN GAVE HIM ANOTHER PAIR OF MOCCASINS 
IN EXCHANGE FOR THOSE HE WAS WEARING 



THE BOY AND THE DRAGON 109 

way I will tell you/' and he moved rapidly out into the 
lake. 

The dragon-man moved down along the bank of the lake, 
while the youth watched him from the water. He met a 
Toad in the path, and said, " Little Toad, have you seen 
the youth I am looking for ? If he passed this way you 
would surely have seen him." " I am minding my own 
business," answered the Toad, and he hopped away into 
the moss. Then the dragon-man saw a very large fish with 
his head above water, looking for flies, and he said, " Have 
you seen the boy I am looking for ? " " Yes," said the fish, 
" you have just been talking to him," and he laughed to 
himself and disappeared. The dragon-man went back and 
searched everywhere for Toad, but he could not find him. 
As he looked he came upon a musk-rat running along by 
the stream, and he said angrily, " Have you seen the person 
I am looking for ? " " No," said the rat. " I think you are 
he," said the dragon-man. Then the musk-rat began to 
cry bitterly and said, " No, no ; the boy you are looking 
for passed by just now, and he stepped on the roof of my 
house and broke it in." The dragon-man was deceived again. 
He went on and soon came upon old Turtle splashing aroimd 
in the mud. " You are very old and wise," he said, hoping 
to flatter him, " you have surely seen the person I am looking 
for." " Yes," said Turtle, " he is farther down the stream. 
Go across the river and you will find him. But beware, for 



no CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

if you do not know him when you see him, he will surely kill 
you." Turtle knew weU that the dragon-man would now 
meet his fate. 

The dragon-man followed the lake tiU he came to the 
river. For greater caution, so that he might be less ecLsUy 
seen, he changed himself to a Snake. Then he attempted 
to cross the stream. But the youth, stiU in the form of a 
fish and stiU using the power of his magic bark with the 
mystic sign, was swimming round and round in a circle in 
the middle of the river. A rapid whirlpool arose where he 
swam, but it was not visible on the surface. As the Snake 
approached it, he saw nothing but clear water. He 
failed to recognize his enemy, and as Turtle had told 
him, he swam into the whirlpool before he was aware 
of it, and was quickly drawn to the bottom, where he was 
drowned. 

The youth fished him up and cut off his head. Then 
he changed back to his own form. He went to the 
dragon-man's lodge to see how the old woman had fared, but 
she had gone with her bright robe, and the lodge was empty. 
Then the youth went back to his home and reported what 
he had done. And he received many rich gifts from the Chief 
for his brave deed, and the land was never troubled again 
by dragons. But from that time the snake family was hated 
because its shape had concealed the dragon-man, and to this 
day an Indian will not let a snake escape with his hfe if he 



THE BOY AND THE DRAGON iii 

meets one of them in his path. For they still are mindful 
of the adventure of their ancestor in the old days, and they 
are suspicious of the evil power the snake family secretly 
possess. 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 

IONG ago, when Glooskap was the ruler of the 
Indians in Eastern Canada, and when the 
-^ animals all worked for him and talked hke 
men. Wolf was one of Rabbit's enemies. On the surface 
they seemed to be friends, but each was afraid of the 
other and each suspected the other of treachery. Rabbit 
was very faithful to his work as the forest guide who 
showed people the way to far places. But he was also 
a great trickster, and he dehghted to play pranks on every 
one he met. He Hked more than all to pester Wolf, for 
he had a hatred for his cruel ways, and he was always able 
to outwit him. 

It happened that Rabbit and Wolf Hved close together, 
deep in the Canadian forest. Some distance from them, 
in a little house, lived a poor widow woman who had only 
one daughter. She was a very beautiful girl, with hair as 
black as the raven's wing, and with eyes Hke the dark of 
the underwater. Rabbit and Wolf each feU in love with 
her, and each in his own way sought her as his wife. 
Rabbit tried hard to win her love. When he went to her 

112 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 113 

house he always dressed himself in a soft brown coat, and 
he put a bangle around his neck and bells upon his feet. 
And often he played sweetly on Ms flute, hoping to charm 
her with his music, for he was a great player upon the Indian 
pipe. And he tried to grow a moustache to hide his split 
hp ; but he had Httle success, for his whiskers would not 
grow thick, and he has the thin scraggy moustache of a few 
hairs to this day. But no matter what Rabbit did to 
adorn himself, the girl gave him cold looks, and old Wolf 
seemed to be deeper in her favour, for she liked his 
-willowy form and his sleek and bashful ways. And poor 
Rabbit was sore distressed. 

One fine day in the spring-time. Rabbit came upon the 
girl and her mother gathering May-flowers among the moss. 
He crept close to listen to their talk. He heard the 
mother say, " I have no stomach for little Rabbit, but Wolf 
pleases me well. You must marry Wolf. They tell me 
he is a great hunter, and if you marry him we shall never 
want for food." 

When Rabbit heard this he was very sad ; he deter- 
mined that on no account should Wolf marry the widow's 
daughter, and that he must use aU his power to prevent it. 
That night he went alone to the girl's house. He spoke 
sneeringly of Wolf, saying with a bitter frown, " Wolf is 
no hunter ; he never catches any game because he is lazy 
and has no brains ; I always have to feed him to keep him 

I 



114 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

from starving ; he is but a beast of burden ; I always ride 
upon his back when I go to a far country, for he is good 
for nothing else." The girl's mother wondered greatly, and 
she was very startled by this news, for she did not want 
her daughter to marry a good-for-nothing ; but she was 
not sure that Rabbit spoke the truth, for she had heard 
that sometimes he told great lies. So she said, " If you 
wiU ride Wolf over here I wiU beUeve you, and he shall not 
marry my daughter, and you shall marry her yourself." 
And Rabbit went home well pleased and sure of a happy 
ending to his trick. 

The next day Rabbit purposely met Wolf in the forest, 
and he said, " Let us go together to see the widow's 
daughter." And Wolf was glad to go. They had not 
gone far when Rabbit began to cry. Then he lay down 
on the ground, and rolled and moaned and rubbed his belly 
as if in great distress. " I have a sharp pain in my belly," 
he sobbed, " I cannot walk any farther. If I walk I shall 
surely die, and I cannot go on unless you carry me on your 
back." Wolf willingly agreed, for he wanted to see the 
beautiful girl, and he was very sorry for poor Rabbit in his 
pain; and Rabbit, laughing to himself, chmbed on Wolf's 
back. Wolf ran along, not feeling the load, for Rabbit was 
very light. They had not gone far when Rabbit cried again 
and said, " I cannot ride without a saddle, for your bare 
back hurts me and gives me blisters." So they borrowed 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 115 

a little saddle from a field by the way and put it on Wolf's 
back. Soon Rabbit said, " This is fine fun ; let us play 
that you are a horse and that I am a great rider. I should 
like to put a Httle bridle on you, and to wear spurs on my 
feet and to carry a whip." And Wolf, wishing to please 
Rabbit to make him forget his pain, gladly agreed. So 
they borrowed a little bridle and spurs and a whip from 
another field near by, and did as Rabbit asked, and 
together they went to the girl's home. Wolf trotting along 
like a little horse, and Rabbit laughing to himself, sitting 
in the saddle, with his spurs and his whip, holding the 
bridle reins. When they drew near the house. Rabbit made 
a great noise so that the mother and her daughter might 
look out to see where the shouting came from. He called 
loudly, " Whoa, Whoa." And the girl and her mother 
opened the door and looked out at them in wonder. 
Then as they were looking on. Rabbit, chuckling to 
himself, struck Wolf a stinging blow with his whip, and 
stuck his spurs deep into Wolf's sides and called him loudly 
a lazy beast. Wolf jumped and plunged and kicked because 
of the prick of the spurs and the sting of the whip ; he was 
very cross, but he said nothing. 

Some distance away. Rabbit tied Wolf to a tree, saying, 
" Stay here and I will send the girl to you." Then he went 
to the house, and he said to the woman, " Now you will 
believe that Wolf is a beast of burden, for I have ridden 



ii6 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

here on his back." And the woman beheved him. She 
told him to give Wolf some com or grass. But Rabbit 
said, " He doesn't eat com or grass ; he eats only fresh 
meat," for he knew well that Wolf would be quite 
contented if he got a good meal of meat. Then she 
gave him some fresh meat, which he brought to Wolf. And 
Wolf was happy, and his anger disappeared, and he forgot 
the pain of the spurs and the whip, and he thought it was 
fine fun to get a good meal so easily. The woman promised 
that Rabbit should marry her daughter, and when night 
feU Rabbit went home weU pleased, leaving Wolf still tied 
to the tree. It was so dark that Wolf did not see him 
leaving the house, and for a long time he thought he was 
still inside, and he waited long in the starlight. At last he 
grew tired waiting, for he was hungry and he was cold 
standing stiU in the chiU night air of early spring. He cut 
with his teeth the bridle rein that tied him to the tree, and 
then he went to the woman's house. But the woman would 
not let him in. She told him to go away, that she never 
wished to see him again, and she called him a lazy beast 
of burden. He went home in great anger, for he knew now 
that he had been tricked, and he swore that he would have 
vengeance on Rabbit. 

The next day Rabbit learned from the woman that she 
had spurned Wolf from her door, and he knew that Wolf 
reahzed he had been deceived. He was somewhat 




WOLF TROTTED ALONG LIKE A LITTLE HORSE, AND RARBIT 
LAUGHING TO HIMSELF SITTING IN THE SADDLE 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 117 

frightened, for he dreaded Wolf's vengeance, and for several 
days he hid among the trees. Then hunger drove him out 
and he went forth to look for food. One evening he 
entered a garden in search of cabbage, and he was busy 
robbing it, when the people who owned the garden spied 
him. And they said, " Here is the thief who has been 
steaUng our vegetables. We will catch him and teach 
him a lesson." Before Rabbit knew it, they were upon 
him, for he was eating heartily, he was so hungry, and they 
caught him and bound him fast to a tree and went to get 
scalding water to pour upon his back to teach him not to 
rob their garden again. But while they were away Wolf 
came along. He, too, was very hungry, for he had eaten 
no meal for many days, but he was glad when he saw 
Rabbit, for now he thought he would have his revenge. 
Rabbit saw him at a distance, and he resolved to try another 
trick on him, and to hail him as if he thought he was still 
his friend. And he cried out to him, " Help me, Wolf ! 
Help me ! The people here asked me to eat up a nice little 
lamb, and when I refused to do it, they tied me up to this 
tree, and they have gone to bring the lamb to me." 

Wolf was too hungry to be cautious, and he forgot all 
about Rabbit's tricks, for spring lamb was his favourite 
food. And he said, " I will eat up the httle lamb," and 
he smacked his Hps as he spoke, and thought of the nice 
tender meal he would have. Then Rabbit said, " Untie 



ii8 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

me and take my place, for the people will soon be here with 
the lamb." So Wolf untied him, and Rabbit in turn bound 
Wolf fast to the tree, and laughing to himself because he 
had again outwitted stupid Wolf, he ran rapidly away. Far 
off he hid behind the trees to see what would happen. Soon 
the people came back, carrying the pots of scalding water. 
Wolf saw them coming, and he was in high spirits, for 
he thought the lamb he was to eat was in one of the pots. 
It was moonhght, and in the shadow of the great tree the 
people could not see very clearly, and they thought Wolf 
was Rabbit, stiU bound fast where they had left him. So 
they poured the scalding water on his back and kicked him 
and knocked him on the head with a big stick, and they 
said, " Now, thief, we have taught you how dangerous it 
is to rob gardens in the spring moonhght." Wolf howled 
with pain, for his back was bhstered and his head was sore, 
and Rabbit heard him, and he sat on a log and shook with 
laughter because of the success of his prank. 

Then the people untied Wolf and let him go. He went 
away wearily among the trees. And he again swore ven- 
geance on Rabbit, and he resolved to kill him as soon as 
he set eyes upon him, for he knew he had been tricked 
a second time. For several days he searched for his 
enemy. At last, one night of bright moonhght, he came 
upon Rabbit sitting in a patch of Indian tobacco plants, 
eating his fill and contentedly chewing the tobacco leaves. 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 119 

Rabbit's mouth was full of tobacco, but he laughed loudly 
when he saw Wolf's back bound in bandages because of 
the blisters, and his sore head tied up in a cloth. But when 
he saw Wolf's angry eyes he was frightened, and he ran away 
into the woods. The moon was shining in the forest, and 
Wolf could catch a glimpse now and then of his brown 
coat among the trees, and he chased him for a long time. 
Rabbit tried all his tricks to shake him from his tracks, 
but without avail. At last, when Rabbit was almost worn 
out, he took refuge in a hollow tree, into which he shpped 
through a small hole, where Wolf could not follow him. 
And Wolf said, " Now I have him in my power. I will 
kill him ; but first I must go home to get my axe to cut 
down the tree and to chop off his head." Then he looked 
around for some one to keep watch over the tree while he 
was gone, so that Rabbit could not escape. At last he saw 
Owl sitting quietly on a branch near. He called to him 
and said, " Watch by this hole until I get back, and do not 
let Rabbit get away." So Owl came down and sat by the 
hole and promised to keep guard over the prisoner, and 
Wolf went away to look for his axe. 

But Rabbit was not caught yet ; he had another trick 
left. After Wolf had gone away, he called to Owl sitting 
by the hole, and said, " Owl, come and see what a nice 
little room I have here in the tree.'* But Owl replied, 
" It is too dark, I cannot see." Then Rabbit said, " Open 



120 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

your eyes wide and put your face close to the hole, for I 
have a light here and you can see easily." Owl did as he 
was told, for he was a curious fellow. Rabbit had a 
great mouthful of tobacco juice from the Indian tobacco 
leaves he had been chewing, and when Owl put his face 
close to the hole he squirted the juice into Owl's eyes. 
Owl screamed loudly, for his eyes were smarting and he 
was blinded by the juice ; he ran around the tree and 
stamped and shrieked and rubbed his eyes, trying to relieve 
them of their pain. And while he was about it. Rabbit 
slipped out of the hole and ran away, and Owl did not 
know he was gone. 

Soon Wolf came back, carrying his big sharp axe. And 
he said, " Now I shaU kill him at last." And Owl was 
afraid to teU him about his sore eyes ; they were stiU open 
wide, and he could not close them. At once Wolf chopped 
down the hoUow tree. Then he split it open from end to 
end. But there was no sign of Rabbit. Wolf then thought 
Owl had tricked him, and that he had helped Rabbit to 
escape. But Owl said he had not. He sat with his eyes 
wide open, staring stupidly and moaning and making 
strange noises because of his pain. Wolf thought he was 
laughing at him and taunting him, for he did not know the 
meaning of Owl's strange cries, and in his rage he fell to 
beating him over the head with his axe-handle until poor 
Owl's head was swoUen to a great size. And Owl cried, 



OWL WITH THE GREAT HEAD AND EYES 121 

" Hoot, Hoot, Hoot," and his eyes stared from his swollen 
head even larger than before. Then Wolf went on his 
way, resolved to keep away from Rabbit. And since that 
time Owl has cried " Hoot, Hoot, Hoot " at night, for he 
still remembers his pain ; and his head is still swollen 
and bigger than that of other birds because of the beating 
Wolf gave him with his axe-handle ; and his eyes are still 
large and they stare stupidly, and he cannot look at light, 
and he is bhnd in the dayhght because of the tobacco juice 
Rabbit squirted into his eyes. And since that night Rabbit 
and Wolf have avoided each other, and they have not Uved 
in the same place, and they have never since been friends. 



THE TOBACCO FAIRY FROM THE BLUE HILLS 

A MAN and his wife and two little children were 
hving long ago on the shores of a lake sur- 
rounded by large trees, deep in the Canadian 
forest. They lived very happily together, and as game 
was plentiful, they wanted for nothing. As the children 
grew up they became each day more beautiful and gentle, 
until the old women of the tribe said, " They are too good 
and lovely for this world ; their home is surely elsewhere 
in the West." Before they grew to maturity a cruel 
plague spread over the land and carried them off with its 
ravages. Their mother was the next to go, slowly growing 
weaker, and wasting away before the eyes of her husband, 
who was powerless to save her. 

The man was now left aU alone upon the earth. The 
joy of his life had gone with his wife and children, and he 
went about in great loneliness and sorrow. Life was long 
to him and dreary, and often he wished that he too was 
dead. But at last he roused himself and said, " I wiU go 
about doing good. I will spend my Hfe helping others, and 
perhaps in that way I can find peace." So he worked hard 

122 



THE TOBACCO FAIRY FROM THE BLUE HILLS 123 

and did all the good he could for the weaker and the poorer 
people of his tribe. He was held in high esteem by all the 
people of the village, and in their affection for him they 
aU called him " Grandfather." He grew to be very old, 
and because of his good deeds he found great happiness. 
But he was stiU very soHtary, and the days and evenings 
were long and lonely, and as he grew older and his work 
grew less, he found it hard to pass away the time, for he 
could only sit alone and dream of his vanished youth and 
of his absent friends. 

One day he sat thinking by the lake. Many people of 
the village were around him, but as usual he sat alone. 
Suddenly a large flock of birds, looking hke great black 
clouds, came flying from the blue hills in the distance toward 
the shore of the lake. They wheeled and circled about, 
and hovered long over the trees, uttering strange cries. 
The people had never before seen such large birds, and they 
were much afraid and said, " They are not ordinary creatures. 
They foreshadow some strange happening." Suddenly one 
of the birds fluttered for an instant and fell slowly to the 
earth with an arrow in its breast. No one in the village 
had shot at the flock, and where the arrow had come from 
no man knew. The mystery frightened the people still 
more, and they looked to the old man for counsel, for they 
knew that he was very wise. 

The fallen bird lay fluttering on the ground, seemingly 



124 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

in pain. The other birds circled about it for a short time, 
uttering loud cries. Then they screamed and caUed to 
each other and flew back to the distant blue hiUs, leaving 
the fallen bird behind them with the arrow sticking in its 
breast. The old man was not frightened by the sight. He 
said, " I will go to the stricken bird ; perhaps I can heal 
its wound." But the people, in great fear, said, " Do not 
go, Grandfather, the bird wiU do you harm." But the old 
man answered, " It can do no harm to me. My work 
is ended and my life is almost done. My sky is dark, 
for I am full of sorrow, and with me it is already the 
twilight of time. I am alone in the world, for my kindred 
have gone. I am not afraid of death, for to me it would 
be very welcome. What matters it if I should die ? " 
And he went to the stricken bird to see if he could help 
it. 

As he went along, his path suddenly grew dark, but as 
he drew nearer, a bright flame suddenly swept down from 
the sky to the place where the bird was lying. There was 
a flash of fire, and when the old man looked he saw that 
the bird had been completely burned up. When he came 
to where it had lain, nothing but black ashes remained. 
He stirred up the ashes with his stick, and lying in the centre 
he found a large hving coal of fire. As he looked at it, in 
a twinkling it disappeared, and in its place was a strange 
little figure like a little man, no bigger than his thumb. 




SUDDENLY A LARGE FLOCK OF BIRDS. LOOKING LIKE GREAT 
BLACK CLOUDS, CAME FLYING FROM THE BLUE HILLS 



THE TOBACCO FAIRY FROM THE BLUE HILLS 125 

" HeUo, Grandfather/' it called, " do not strike me, for I 
have been sent to help you." 

*' Who are you ? " asked the old man. 

" I am one of the Little People from the distant blue 
hiUs," said the tiny boy. Then the old man knew that 
the Httle feUow was one of the strange fairy people of the 
mountains, of whom he had often heard. " What do you 
want ? " he asked. 

" I have been sent to you with a precious gift," answered 
the Httle man. The old man wondered greatly, but he said 
nothing. 

Then the fairy from the blue hills said, " You are old 
and lonely. You have done many noble deeds, and you 
have always gone about bringing good to others. In that 
way you have found peace. And because of your good 
Hfe, I have been sent to bring you more contentment. 
Your work is done, but your Hfe is not yet ended, and you 
have stiU a long time to dweU upon the earth. You must 
Hve out your mortal course. You are longing always for 
your dead wife and children, and you are often thinking 
of your youth, and with you the days are long and time 
hangs heavy. But I have been sent to you with a gift that 
will help you to pass the time more pleasantly." 

Then the Httle man gave him a number of smaU seeds 
and said, " Plant these at once, here, in the ashes from which 
I have just risen." The old man did as he was told. At 



126 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

once the seeds sprouted and great leaves grew from them, 
and soon the place where the bird had been burned up became 
a large field of Tobacco. 

The fairy then gave him a large pipe and said, " Dry 
these leaves and place them in this pipe and smoke them. 
You will have great contentment, and when you have 
nothing to do it wiU help you to pass the time away, and 
when no one is with you it will be a companion. And it 
will bring you many dreams of the future and of the past. 
And when the smoke curls upwards it will have for you 
many visions of those you loved, and you will see their faces 
in the smoke as you sit alone in the twilight." 

The old man was very thankful for the fairy's gift. But 
the Httle man said, " Teach other old men how to use it, 
so that they, too, may possess it and enjoy it." 

Then the fairy quickly disappeared, going towards the 
distant blue hills, and he was never seen in the village again. 
And with his pipe and his tobacco the old man went back 
to his dreaming, with more contentment than before. In 
this way Tobacco was brought to the Indians in the old 
days. 



RAINBOW AND THE AUTUMN LEAVES 

IN olden days, long before the Indians came to Canada, 
all the animals talked and worked like men. Every 
year after midsummer they held a great council at 
which they were aU present. But it happened once in the 
summer before the council met, that they aU wanted to 
go to the sky to see what the country up there was Hke. 
None of them could find a way to go. The oldest and 
wisest creature on aU the earth was Turtle. One day he 
prayed to the Thunder God to take him to the sky, and 
his prayer was soon answered. There was a great noise, 
as if the earth had been split asunder, and when the people 
next looked for Turtle he was nowhere to be found. They 
searched everywhere without success. But that evening, 
when they looked upwards, they saw him in the sky, moving 
about like a black cloud. Turtle liked the sky so weU 
that he decided to live there always and to send his 
descendants, later, to the earth. And the sky-people 
agreed to keep him. They asked him, " Where do you 
want to dwell ? " And he answered, " I should hke to 
dwell in the Black Cloud, in which are the ponds and 

127 



128 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

streams and lakes and springs of water, for I always dwelt 
near these places when I was young." So he was allowed 
to have his wish. But when the Great Council of the animals 
met on earth in the time of the harvest-moon, he was always 
present. He came in the Black Cloud, but he always went 
back to the sky after the Council was ended. And the other 
animals envied him his good fortune, and they wished that 
they could go with him. 

After a time the animals were greatly distressed and 
angered by the rumour that a new race of creatures was 
coming from far over the ocean to inhabit their land. They 
talked it over very carefuUy, and they aU thought how 
fortunate it would be if they could aU go to the sky with 
old Turtle, and hve hke him, free from fear and trouble and 
care. But they were puzzled to know how to get there, 
for Turtle had never told any of them the way. 

One day Deer, wandering about alone in the forest, as 
was his custom, came across Rainbow, who often built a 
path of many colours to the sky. And he said to 
Rainbow, " Carry me up to the sky, for I want to see 
Turtle." But Rainbow was afraid to do it, for he wished 
first to ask the Thunder God for permission, and he put 
Deer off, and to gain time he said, " Come to me in winter, 
when I stay for a time on the mountain near the lake. Then 
I wiU gladly carry you to the place where Turtle dweUs." 

Throughout the long winter months Deer looked long- 




THROUGHOUT THE LONG WINTER MONTHS 
DEER LOOKED LONGINGLY FOR RAINBOW 



RAINBOW AND THE AUTUMN LEAVES 129 

ingly for Rainbow, but Rainbow did not come. Life was 
growing harder on the earth, and the animals were in terror 
of the new race that was soon to come to their land, and 
Deer was very timid and impatient. At last, one day in 
the early smnmer, Rainbow came again, and Deer hastened 
to meet him. *' Why were you false to me ? " he asked ; 
" I waited for you all winter long on the mountain by 
the lake, but you did not come as you promised. I want 
to go to the sky now, for I must see Turtle." Raiabow 
answered, " I cannot take you now. But some day, when 
there is a Fog over the lake, I shall come back to drive it 
away. Come to me then, and I shall take you to the sky 
and to the place where Turtle dwells. This time I will not 
deceive you." 

Rainbow consulted the Thunder God, and received per- 
mission to do as Deer wished. Soon afterwards the Fog 
one day rolled in a thick bank across the lake, and Deer 
hurried out to wait for Rainbow. Sure enough. Rainbow 
came down, as he had promised, to drive the Fog away. 
He threw his arch of many colours from the lake to the 
blue hills far away, and the Fog at once disappeared from 
the place. And he said to Deer, who stood watching him, 
" Now I will keep my promise. Follow my many-coloured 
path over the lulls and the forests and the streams, and be 
not afraid, and you will soon reach Turtle's home in the 
sky." Deer did as he was told, and soon he reached the 

K 



130 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

sky. Turtle was glad to see him, and Deer liked the country 
so well that he decided to stay for ever. And he roamed 
over the sky everywhere, moving Hke the wind from place 
to place. 

When midsummer had passed and the harvest-moon 
had come and the Great Council again met together, Deer 
was absent for the first time in his life. The animals waited 
long for him to appear, for they needed his advice, but he 
did not come. They sent the Birds out to find him. Black 
Hawk and Woodpecker and Bluejay aU sought him in the 
forest, but they could not find a trace of him. Then Wolf 
and Fox scoured the woods far and near, but they came 
back and reported that he could not be found anywhere- 
At last Turtle arrived at the meeting of the Great Council, 
as was his custom, coming in his Black Cloud, in which were 
the ponds and lakes and streams and springs of water. And 
Bear said, " Deer is absent from the Council meeting. 
Where is Deer ? We cannot meet without him, for we need 
his advice." And Turtle rephed, " Deer is in the sky. Have 
you not heard ? Rainbow made a wonderful pathway for 
him of many varied colours, and by that he came to the 
sky. There he is now," and he pointed to a golden cloud 
scurrying across the sky overhead. 

Turtle advised that the animals should all go to the sky 
to live until they could be sure that the new race of crea- 
tures would bring them no harm. And he showed them the 



i 



RAINBOW AND THE AUTUMN LEAVES 131 

pathway that Rainbow had made, stretching from the earth 
in wonderful colours. The animals all agreed at the 
Great Council to take Turtle's advice. But they were all 
very angry at Deer for leaving them without warning, for 
they thought that all the animals should either stay 
together faithfully on the earth or go all together to 
the sky. Bear showed the greatest anger and annoyance. 
Because of his great strength, he had no fear of the new 
race that was said soon to be coming, and he had always 
been inclined to look with scorn on Deer's timid and 
impatient ways. " Deer has forsaken us," he said ; "he 
deserted us in the hour of our danger, and that is contrary 
to forest laws and to our code of defence." And he thought 
to himself, " I shall punish him for this when the time 
comes." 

In the late autumn, the time agreed upon came for the 
animals to leave the earth, and Rainbow again made his 
bright path for them to the sky. Bear was the first to go 
up because he was the leader, and because with his great 
weight he wanted to test the strength of the bridge of 
burning colours over which they had to pass. When he 
had almost reached the sky, he met Deer on the path 
waiting to welcome the animals to their new home. And 
he said to him in anger, " Why did you leave us behind, 
without warning, for the land of the Turtle ? Why did 
you desert the Great Council ? Why did you not wait until 



132 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

aU could come together ? You are a traitor to your com- 
rades, and you have been false to our faith." And Deer 
answered, also in anger, " Who are you to doubt me or my 
faith ? None but the Wolf may ask me why I came or 
question my fidelity. I will kiU you for your insolence." 
Deer had grown very proud since he had gone to live in 
the sky, and he was no longer timid as he had been on earth. 
His eyes flashed in his fury, and he arched his neck and 
lowered his antlered head, and rushed madly at Bear to 
push him from the path. 

But Bear was not afraid, for he had often tested his 
strength with Deer upon the earth. His low, hoarse 
growls sounded all over the sky, and he prepared to 
fight. They came together with a shock. For a long time 
they battled, until the bridge of burning colours trembled 
and the heavens shook from the force of the conflict. The 
animals waiting by the lake at the end of the path looked 
up and saw the battle above them. They feared the results, 
for they wanted neither Bear nor Deer to die. So they 
sent Wolf up to the sky to put a stop to the contest. When 
Wolf reached the combatants. Bear was bleeding freely, 
for Deer with his antlers had pierced his neck and side. Deer, 
too, was bleeding where Bear's strong claws had torn a 
great wound in his head. Wolf soon stopped the battle, 
and Bear and Deer went away to dress their wounds. Then 
the other animals went up to the sky over Rainbow's flaming 



RAINBOW AND THE AUTUMN LEAVES 133 

path. And they decided to live in the sky and to send their 
descendants back to earth when the new race of creatures 
should come. And they can still sometimes be seen, like 
clouds hurrying across the sky, in the shape they had on 
earth. 

But the blood of Bear and of Deer dropped from them 
as they moved to the sky from the scene of their battle 
along the Rainbow road. It fell freely upon the leaves 
of the trees beneath them, and changed them into varied 
colours. And every year when autumn comes in the 
north country, the leaves take on again the bright and 
wondrous colours given to them by the blood of Bear 
and Deer when they fought on the Rainbow path ages 
and ages ago. And Bear and Deer have never since been 
friends, and their descendants no longer dwell together in 
peace, as they did in the olden days. 



RABBIT AND THE MOON-MAN 

ONCE, long ago, Rabbit lived with his old grand- 
mother deep in the Canadian forest, far from 
all other people. He was a great hunter, and 
aU around, far and near, he laid snares and set traps to 
catch game for food. It was winter, and he caught many 
little animals and birds. He brought them home daily to 
feed himself and his old grandmother, and he was well 
pleased with his success. But after some weeks had 
passed he was unable to catch any game. He always 
found his traps and snares empty, although many tracks 
were always around them, and there were many signs 
that animals were prowling about. He knew then that he 
was being robbed nightly, and that a thief was pilfering 
his traps. It was very cold and the snow lay deep 
in the forest, and Rabbit and his old grandmother were 
in dire need of food. Every morning Rabbit rose very 
early and hurried off to his traps, but always he found 
them empty, for the thief had been ahead of him. He 
was greatly puzzled, for he could not think who the thief 
was. 

134 



RABBIT AND THE MOON-MAN 135 

At last one morning, after a new fall of snow, he found 
the mark of a long foot near his traps, and he knew it was 
the foot of the game-robber. It was the longest foot- 
print he had ever seen, long and narrow and very Hght, 
like a moonbeam. And Rabbit said, " Now I shall rise 
earher in the morning, and I shall go to my traps ahead 
of the thief and take my game, so that they will all be 
empty when he comes." Each morning he rose earlier 
to catch the thief, but the man of the long foot was 
always there before him, and his game was always 
gone. No matter how early Rabbit got up, the thief 
was always ahead of him and his traps were always 
empty. 

So Rabbit said to his old grandmother, " The man of 
the long foot, who robs my traps, is always up ahead of me, 
no matter how early I rise. I wiU make a snare from a 
bow-string, and I wiU watch aU this night, and I wiU surely 
catch him." He made a trap from a stout bow-string and 
set it beside his snares, and took the end of the bow- 
string some distance away to a clump of trees, behind which 
he hid. He hoped that the thief would step into the trap ; 
then he would puU the bow-string and tie him fast to a 
tree. He sat very quiet, waiting for the man of the long 
foot to appear. It was moonlight when he set out, but 
soon it grew very dark in the forest. The Moon sud- 
denly disappeared. But the stars were all shining on the 



136 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

white snow and there were no clouds in the sky, and 
Rabbit wondered what had happened to the Moon. 
He waited very still and a little frightened in the star- 
light. 

Soon he heard some one coming, sneaking stealthily 
through the trees. Then he saw a white light which 
dazzled his eyes. The light went towards the snares, 
until it stopped just at the trap Rabbit had set. Then 
Rabbit pulled the bow-string, closed the trap as he had 
hoped, and tied the string fast to a tree. He heard sounds 
of a struggle, and he saw the white light move from side 
to side, but he knew that he had his prisoner fast and 
that the man of the long foot was caught at last. He 
was much afraid of the white light, and he ran home as 
fast as he could and told his old grandmother that he 
had caught the game-robber in the trap, and that he 
did not know who he was, for he was too frightened 
to look. And his grandmother said, " You must go back 
and see who it is, and teU him he must stop robbing 
your snares." But Rabbit said, "I do not want to go 
until daylight, for the Moon has gone down and the 
forest is very dark." But his grandmother said, " You 
must go." So poor Rabbit, although he was very 
frightened by what he had seen, set out again for his 
traps. 

When he drew near to his snares he saw that the white 




HE SAT VERY QUIET, WAITING FOR THE 
MAN OF THE LONG FOOT TO APPEAR 



RABBIT AND THE MOON-MAN 137 

light was still shining. It was so bright that his eyes were 
dazzled and he had to stop far from it. Then he approached 
nearer, but his eyes soon became very sore. There was 
a stream flowing beside him, and he bathed his eyes in the 
cold water, but it brought him no rehef, and his eyes felt 
hot and red, and tears fell from them because of the 
dazzling Hght. Then he took great handfuls of snow and 
threw snowballs at the Hght, hoping thereby to put it out. 
But when the snowballs came near to the Hght they melted 
and fell down hke rain. Then, with his eyes stiU smarting. 
Rabbit in his rage scooped up great handfuls of soft black 
mud from the bottom of the stream, and forming it into 
balls, he threw them with aU his force at the white light. 
He heard them strike something with a duU thud, and he 
heard loud yells from the prisoner — the man of the long 
foot — behind the shining hght. Then a voice came from 
the light, saying, " Why did you snare me ? Come and 
untie me at once. I am the Man in the Moon. It is near 
to the morning, and before dawn I must be on my way 
home. You have already spotted my face with mud, 
and if you do not loose me at once I shall kill aU your 
tribe." 

Poor Rabbit was more frightened than before, and he 
ran home and told his old grandmother what had happened. 
And his grandmother was also very frightened, for she 
thought that no good could come of it. And she told Rabbit 



138 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

to go back at once and untie the Man in the Moon, for 
the night was almost spent, and the dawn would soon be 
breaking. So poor Rabbit, trembling in his fear, went 
back to his traps. From a great distance he cried, " I wiU 
untie you if you wiU never again rob my snares, and if you 
will never come back to earth." And the prisoner in the 
trap promised, and said, " I swear it by my white Hght." 
Then Rabbit approached very carefully. He had to shut 
his eyes and grope his way because of the bright Hght, and 
his hp quivered because of the great heat. At last 
he rushed in and cut the bow-string snare with his teeth, 
and the Man in the Moon hurried on his way, for he 
could already see the dawn in the East. But Rabbit 
was almost blinded while he was about it, and his 
shoulders were badly scorched. And ever since that time 
Rabbit bHnks and his eyelids are pink, and water runs from 
his eyes when he looks at a bright Hght ; and his Hp 
always quivers ; and his shoulders are yeUow, even when 
he wears his white winter coat, because of the great light 
and heat on the winter night long ago when he loosed the 
Man in the Moon from the snare. And since that night 
the Man in the Moon has never come back to earth. He 
stays at his task in the sky, lighting the forest by night; 
but he still bears on his face the marks of the black mud 
which Rabbit threw at him. And sometimes for several 
nights he goes away to a quiet place, where he tries to wash 



RABBIT AND THE MOON-MAN 139 

off the mud ; and then the land is dark. But he never 
succeeds in cleaning himself, and when he comes back to 
his work the marks of Rabbit's mud-balls are still upon 
his shining face. 



THE CHILDREN WITH ONE EYE 

TWO little children, a boy and a girl, lived long 
ago with their widowed mother in the Canadian 
forest. The woman was very poor, for her hus- 
band had long been dead and she had to work very 
hard to provide food for herself and her children. Often 
she had to go far from home in search of fish and game, 
and at times she was absent for many days. When she 
went on these long journeys she left her children behind 
her, and thus they were allowed to grow up with very 
little oversight or discipline or care. They soon became 
very unruly because they were so often left to have their 
own way, and when their mother returned from her hunting 
trips she frequently found that they would not obey her, 
and that they did pretty much as they pleased. As they 
grew older they became more headstrong and disobedient, 
and their mother could do very little to control them. 
And she said, " Some day they will suffer for their way- 
wardness." 

One day the woman went to visit a neighbour not far 

140 



THE CHILDREN WITH ONE EYE 141 

away. She left a large pot of bear-fat boiling on the fire. 
And she said to the children, " Do not meddle with the 
pot while I am gone, for the fat may harm you if it 
catches fire." But she was not gone long when the boy 
said to the girl as they played around the pot, " Let us see 
if the fat wiU burn." So they took a burning stick of 
wood and dropped it into the fat, and stood looking into 
the large pot to see what would happen. The fat 
sputtered for an instant ; then there was a sudden flash, 
and a tongue of flame shot upwards from the pot into 
the faces of the children. Their hair was burned to a 
crisp and their faces were scorched, and they ran from 
the house crj^ng with pain. But when they reached 
the outer air, they fotmd that they could not see, 
for the fire had blinded their eyes. So they stumbled 
around in darkness, crjdng loudly for help. But no help 
came. 

When their mother came home she tried every remedy 
she thought might restore their sight. But aU her 
medicine was unavailing, and she said, " You will always 
be blind. That is the punishment for your disobedi- 
ence." 

So the children lived in darkness for a long time. 
But they were no longer headstrong and unruly, 
and although they could no longer see, they were less 
trouble to their mother than they were when they had 



142 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

their sight, for they did not now refuse to do her 
bidding. 

One day, when their mother was far away hunting in 
the forest, an old woman came along and asked the children 
for food. And they brought good food to her as she sat 
before the door. After she had eaten, she said, " You are 
blind, but I can help you, for I am from the Land of the 
Little People. I cannot give you four eyes, but I wiU 
give you one eye between you. You can each use it at 
different times, and it will be better than no sight at aU. 
But handle it with great care and do not leave it l5dng on 
the ground." Then she gave them an eye which she took 
from her pocket, and disappeared. So they used the one 
eye between them, and when the boy had the eye and 
the girl wished to see anything, she would say, " Give 
me the eye," and her brother would carefuUy pass it 
to her. When their mother came home she was very 
glad when she found that they had now some means of 
sight. 

One day when their mother was away again, the boy 
went into the forest with his bow and arrows. He 
carried the eye with him. He had not gone far when he 
saw a fat young deer, which he killed. The deer was too 
heavy for him to carry home alone. So he said, " I will 
go and get my sister, and we shall cut it up and put it in 
a basket and carry it home together." He went home and 




THE BOY WENT INTO THE FOREST WITH HIS BOW AND ARROWS. HE HAD 
NOT GONE FAR WHEN HE SAW A FAT YOUNG DEER, WHICH HE KILLED 



THE CHILDREN WITH ONE EYE 143 

told his sister of his good fortune, and he led her to 
where the deer lay, and they began to cut up the body. 
But they had forgotten to bring a basket or a bag. He 
caUed to his sister saying, " You must weave a basket 
into which we can put the meat to carry it home." And 
his sister said, " How can I make a basket when I cannot 
see ? If I am to weave a basket, I must have the eye.'' The 
boy brought the eye to her and she made a large basket 
from green twigs. 

When she had finished making the basket the boy said, 
" I must finish cutting up the meat. Give me the eye." 
So she brought him the eye, and he proceeded to chop up 
the meat and to put it in the basket. Then he said, 
" Why can we not have a meal here ? I am very hungry." 
His sister agreed that this was a good idea, and he said, 
" You cook the meal while I pack the meat." The girl 
made a fire, but she was afraid she would bum the meat, 
so she said, " I cannot see to cook. I must have the 
eye." By this time her brother had finished packing the 
meat into the basket, and he brought her the eye and she 
went on with her cooking. The fire was low and she said, 
" I must have some dry wood. Bring me some dry pine." 
The boy wandered ofi into the forest in search of wood, but 
he had not gone far when he stumbled over a log and fell 
to the ground. He called to his sister in anger, saying, 
" You always want the eye for yourself. How can I 



144 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

gather dry pine when I cannot see ? Give me the eye at 
once." 

His sister ran to him and helped Mm up and gave him 
the eye. She found her way back to the fire, but as she 
reached it she smelled the meat burning on the spit. She 
shouted, " The meat is burning and our dinner will be 
spoiled. Give me the eye at once, so that I may see if 
the meat is cooked." The boy was some distance away, 
and in his anger he threw the eye to her, saying, " Find 
it. I am not going to walk to you with it if you are too 
lazy to come and get it." The eye feU to the ground 
between them, and neither of them knew where it lay. 
They groped for it among the dead leaves, but as they 
searched for it, a wood-pecker, watching from a branch of a 
tree near by, swooped suddenly down and gobbled it up 
and flew away. 

As they were still searching for it, the old woman who 
had given it to them came along. She had been hiding 
among the trees, and she had seen the wood-pecker flying 
away with her gift. She said, " Where is the eye I gave 
you ? " "It dropped from my head," answered the boy, 
** and I cannot find it in the grass." " Yes," said the 
girl, " it dropped from his head, and we cannot find it." 
*' You have Hed to me," said the old woman, " and you 
have disobeyed, and for that I shall punish you." And 
with her magic power she changed the boy into a mole and 



THE CHILDREN WITH ONE EYE 145 

the girl into a bat, and said, " Now live blind upon the 
earth, with only your sense of sound to guide you/' At 
once the boy and the girl were changed. And so the Mole 
and the Bat appeared upon the earth. 



THE GIANT WITH THE GREY FEATHERS 

ONCE long ago, when the Blackfeet Indians dwelt 
on the Canadian plains, there was a great famine 
in all the land. For many months no buffaloes 
were killed, and there was no meat to be had at any 
price. One by one the old people dropped off because of 
a lack of food, and the young children died early because 
there was no nourishment, and there was great sorrow 
everywhere. Only the strong women and the stronger 
warriors remained alive, but even they gradually grew 
weaker because of the pinch of the hunger sent into the 
land by famine. At last the Chief of the tribe prayed 
that the Great Chieftain of the Indians might come into 
his territory to tell the people what to do to save 
themselves. 

The Great Chief was at that time far away in the south 
country where the warm winds were blowing and the 
flowers were blooming. But one night he heard the Chief's 
prayer borne to him on the winds, and he hastened 
northward, for he knew that his people on the plains were 
somehow in dire distress. Soon he arrived at the village 

146 



THE GIANT WITH THE GREY FEATHERS 147 

of the hungry tribe. " Who has called me here ? " he asked. 
" It was I," answered the Chief. " My people are all 
starving because there are no buffaloes in the country, and 
if you had not come we should soon have all perished." 
Then the Great Chief looked upon his people and he noticed 
that the old folks and the little children had disappeared ; 
only a few children were left and they had pinched cheeks 
and sunken eyes. And he took pity on them and said, 
" There is a great thief not far distant. He is probably 
a wicked giant, and he has driven aU the buffaloes away. 
But I wiU find him and soon you shaU have food." And 
the people were aU comforted, for they knew that the Great 
Chief would keep his word. 

Then the Chief took with him the young Chief's son 
and set out on his quest. The people wanted to go with 
him, but he said, " No ! We shall go alone. It is a 
dangerous duty, and it is better that, if need be, two should 
die in the attempt, than that aU should perish." They 
journeyed westwards across the prairies towards the Great 
Water in the West, and as they went, the youth prayed 
to the Sun and the Moon and the Morning Star to send them 
success. Soon they came to the rolling foot-hills covered 
with sweet-grass and scrubby pine. But stiH they saw 
no signs of buffalo. At last they reached a narrow stream, 
on the bank of which they saw a house with smoke coming 
from the chimney. " There is the cause of all our 



148 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

troubles," said the Chief. " In that house dwells the giant 
Buffalo-thief and his wife. They have driven aU the 
animals from the prairies until not one is left. My magic 
power teUs me it is so ! " Then by his magic power he 
changed his companion into a sharp-pointed straight stick, 
while he himself took the shape of a dog, and they lay on 
the ground and waited. 

Soon the giant and his wife and their little son came 
along. The boy patted the dog on the head, and said, " See 
what a nice dog I have found. He must be lost. May I 
take him home ? " His father said, " No, I do not hke 
his looks. Do not touch him." The boy cried bitterly, 
for he had long hoped for a dog of his own, and his mother 
pleaded for him so hard that at last the giant father said, 
" Oh, very weU. Have your own way, but no good can 
come of it." The woman picked up the stick and said, "I 
will take this nice straight stick along with me. I can dig 
roots with it to make medicine." So they aU went to the 
giant's house, the giant frowning angrily, the woman 
carrying the stick, and the boy leading the dog. 

The next morning the giant went out and soon came 
back with a fat young buffalo, aU skinned and ready for 
cooking. They roasted it on a spit over the fire and had 
a good meal. The boy fed some meat to the dog, but 
his father, when he saw what the boy was doing, beat him 
soundly, and said, " Have I not told you the dog is an evil 




THE GIANT FROWNING ANGRILY, THE WOMAN CARRY- 
ING THE STICK AND THE BOY LEADING THE DOG 



THE GIANT WITH THE GREY FEATHERS 149 

thing ? You must not disobey me." But again the woman 
pleaded for her boy, and the dog was fed. That night when 
aU the world was asleep, the dog and the stick changed back 
to their human form and had a good supper of what was 
left of the buffalo-meat. And the Chief said to the youth, 
" The giant is the Buffalo- thief who keeps the herds from 
coming to the prairies. It is useless to kiU him until we 
have found where he has hidden them." So they changed 
back to the shapes of dog and stick and went to sleep. 

The next morning the woman and her boy set off to the 
forest near the moimtain, to gather berries and to dig up 
medicine roots. They took the dog and the stick with 
them. At noon, after they had worked for some time, 
they sat down to have their limcheon. The woman threw 
the stick down on the ground, and the boy let the dog run 
away among the shrubs. The dog wandered to the side 
of the mountain. There he found an opening Hke the mouth 
of a cave. Peering into the place he saw many buffaloes 
within, and he knew that at last he had found the hiding 
place of the giant's plunder. He went back to the woman 
and the boy and began to bark. This was the signal agreed 
on with his companion. The woman and her son thought 
he was barking at a bird, and they laughed at his capers 
as he jumped about. But he was in reality caUing to his 
comrade. The stick understood the caU and wiggled Hke 
a snake through the underbrush to the dog's side, unseen 



150 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

by the boy and his mother. They then entered the 
large cave in the side of the mountain, and there they found 
a great herd of buffaloes — aU the buffaloes that had been 
driven from the prairies. The dog barked at them and 
snapped at their heels, and the stick beat them, and they 
began to drive them quickly out of the cavern and east- 
ward toward the plains. But they still kept the shape 
of dog and stick. When evening came, and it was time 
for the boy and his mother to go home, the boy searched 
for the dog and the woman looked for her stick, but they 
could not find them, and they had to go home without them. 
Just as the woman and her son reached their house on 
the bank of the river, the giant-thief was coming home 
too. He chanced to look to the east, and there he saw, 
far away, many buffaloes running towards the foot-hiUs 
where the sweet-grass grew. He was very angry, and he 
cried loudly to his son, " Where is the dog ? Where is the 
dog ? " "I lost him in the underbrush," said the boy ; 
" he chased a bird and did not come back." " It was not 
a bird he chased," said the giant ; "it was one of my 
buffaloes. I told you he was an evil thing and not to 
touch him, but you and your mother would have your way. 
Now my buffaloes are aU gone." He gnashed his teeth in 
a great rage, and rushed off to the hidden cave to see if any 
buffaloes were left, crying as he went, " I wiU kill the dog 
if I find him." When he reached the cave the Chief and 



THE GIANT WITH THE GREY FEATHERS 151 

the youth, stiU in the form of a dog and a stick, were 
just rounding up the last of the buffaloes. The giant 
rushed at them to kiU the dog and to break the stick, but 
they sprang upon an old buffalo and hid in his long hair 
and, chnging on tightly, the dog bit the buffalo until the 
old animal plunged and roared and rushed from the cave, 
bearing the Chief and the youth concealed on his back. He 
galloped eastward until he reached the herd far away on 
the prairie, leaving the giant far behind to make the best 
of his anger. Then the Chief and the brave youth took 
their old form of men, and in high spirits they drove the 
herd of buffaloes back to their hungry people waiting 
patiently on the plains. 

The people were very pleased to see the Great Chief 
and the youth returning to the village with the great 
herd of fat buffaloes, for they knew now that the famine 
was ended. But as they drove the animals into a great 
fenced enclosure, a large grey bird flew over their heads 
and swooped down upon them and pecked at them with 
its biU, and tried to frighten them and drive them away. 
The Great Chief knew by his magic power that the grey 
bird was none other than the giant-thief who had stolen 
the buffaloes, and who had changed himself into a bird to 
fly across the prairies in pursuit of them. Then the 
Chief changed himself into an otter and lay down on the 
bank of the stream, pretending to be dead. The grey bird 



152 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

flew down upon him, for he thought he would have a good 
meal of fat otter. But the Chief seized him by the leg, 
and changing back to his own form, he bore him in triumph 
to his camp. He tied him up fast to the smoke-hole of his 
tent and made a great fire inside. The giant cried, 
" Spare me, spare me, and I shaU never do you more 
harm." But the Chief left him on the tent pole all night 
long while the black smoke from the fire poured out around 
him. In the morning his feathers were all black. Then 
the Chief let him down. And he said, " You may go now, 
but you will never be able to resume your former shape. 
You wiU henceforth be a raven, a bird of iU-omen upon 
the earth, an outlaw and a brigand among the birds, des- 
pised among men because of your thefts. And you will 
always have to steal and to hunt hard for your food." And 
to this day the feathers of the raven are black, and he is 
a bird of iU-omen upon the earth because of his encounter 
with the Great Chieftain long ago. 



THE CRUEL STEPMOTHER 

ONCE long ago, when the Blackfeet Indians dwelt 
on the Canadian prairies, a poor Indian and his 
two children, a boy and a girl, were Uving near 
the bank of a great river. The children's mother had long 
been dead and they had long been left to the care of their 
father. Their father did not think it was right that they 
should grow up without a woman's kindness, and he 
decided at last to take another wife. So he went far away 
to a distant village and there he married a queer woman 
of another tribe. Soon times grew hard in the North 
Country, and it was very difficult to get food. The family 
Hved for many days on roots and berries, and often they 
were very hungry because there was no meat. Now it 
happened that the woman the man had married was a 
very wicked witch-woman, who was capable of doing 
many evil deeds. She had no love for her stepchildren, 
and she treated them very cruelly. She blamed them for 
the lack of food in the house, and beating them soundly, 
she said, " You gluttonous brats ; you always eat too much. 
It is little wonder that we cannot keep the house supplied 

153 



154 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

with food." The man saw his wife's cruelty to the chil- 
dren, but although it made him sad, and at times angry, 
he did not interfere, for he thought the woman should 
rule her home. 

One night in the early spring, as the man slept, his first 
wife appeared to him in a dream, and said, " Hang a large 
spider web across the trail in the forest where the animals 
pass and you will get plenty of food. But be good to my 
children. Their cruel stepmother is planning to kill them." 
And she told him where to look for the magical spider web. 
The next day the man found the large spider web, and he 
went far away into the forest and hung it from the trees 
over the trail where the animals passed. That evening 
when he went back to the web he found many animals 
entangled in its meshes, for it had magical power. He 
killed the animals and brought them home, and that night 
they had a good fat supper of roast deer meat. Day after 
day the magical spider web gave him great numbers of 
rabbits and deer, as the vision of his dead wife had told 
him in the night, and from that time on the family did not 
want for food. 

But the man's success in hunting only angered his 
witch-wife. She had now no cause for complaint against 
the little children, and she could no longer scold them and 
say that because of them there was no food in the house. 
Her hatred for them grew stronger each day, and at last 



THE CRUEL STEPMOTHER 155 

she decided to kill them and to kill their father as soon 
as she could. Their father was going away on the morrow 
in search of wood to make arrows for his bows, and she 
thought she would have a good chance to kill them 
while he was gone. Then she would kill their father when 
he returned. So she laid her plans. But that night the 
vision of his first wife came again to the man as he slept, 
and it said, " Your present wife is a witch- woman. She 
plans to kill the children to-morrow when you are away, 
and when you come home she will kill you, too. You must 
kill her while there is yet time. Remember my little 
children.*' 

When the man awoke in the morning he was much 
alarmed because of the story told him by the vision of 
the night. He no longer trusted his witch-wife and he 
decided to get rid of her. But he feared she would attack 
the children before he could prevent it. So when the witch- 
wife went out to get water from the stream to make break- 
fast, he gave each of the children a stick, a white stone, 
and a bunch of soft moss, and he said, " You must run away 
from here and stay away until I can find you, for you are 
in great danger. You will find these three things I give 
you of great use. Throw them behind you if any evil thing 
pursues you, and they will keep you from harm." The 
children in great fear at once ran away into the forest. 
Then the man hung his magical spider web over the door 



156 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

of the house, and sat quietly inside waiting for his wife 
to come back. In a little while she came home, carrying 
a pail of water, but she did not see the web with its fine 
strands hanging across the door, and when she walked into 
it she was at once entangled in its meshes. She struggled 
hard to get free, but her head was inside the door while 
her body was outside, and the web held her fast around 
the neck. Then the man said, " I know now that you 
are a cruel witch-woman. You wiU beat my children no 
more." With his stone-axe he struck her a mighty blow 
which completely severed her head from her body. Then 
he ran from the house as fast as he could and went towards 
his children, who were watching him not far away. 

But the man was not yet done with the cruel witch- 
woman. As he ran from the house her headless body, 
freed from the spider web, ran after him, while her 
severed head, with eyes staring and hair flying, followed 
the children, sometimes bumping along the ground and 
sometimes rising through the air. The father thought it 
would be well to go in a different direction from the 
children, and he went west, while they went east. The 
children were very frightened when they saw the horrible 
head behind them, slowly gaining upon them. Then they 
remembered their father's magic gifts. When the head 
was close upon them, they threw their sticks on the 
ground at their backs and at once a dense forest sprang up 



THE CRUEL STEPMOTHER 157 

between them and their pursuer. The children said, " Now 
we will rest here for a while, for we are nearly out of breath. 
The wicked head cannot get through that dense forest." 
And they sat on the grass and rested. 

Soon, however, the pursuing head emerged from the 
thick trees. The children got up and ran as hard as 
they could, but close behind them came the severed head, 
rolling its eyes and gnashing its teeth in a great frenzy, and 
uttering terrible yells. It was very near to them, when the 
children again remembered their father's gifts. They threw 
the white stones behind them, and at once a high moun- 
tain of white rock rose between them and their enemy. 
They sat on the ground and rested, and said, " Oh dear, 
oh dear, what shall we do ? We have only one means of 
safety left, these httle bits of moss." The wicked head 
hurled itself against the mountain, but it could not get 
through. A big buffalo bull was feeding on the grass near 
it, and the head called to him to break a road through the 
mountain. The bull rushed at the mountain with all his 
force, but the mountain was so hard that it broke his head 
and he fell down dead. Some moles were playing in the 
soft earth near by, and the head called to them to make 
a passage through the hill. So the moles searched and 
found a soft earthy place in the midst of the rock and soon 
they tunnelled a hole to the other side of the motmtain, 
through which the head was able to pass. When the 



158 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

children saw their pursuer coming out of the moles' 
tunnel they cried loudly and ran away as fast as they could. 
At last, after a very long chase, the head was almost upon 
them, and they decided to use their last means of 
protection. They threw the wet moss behind them, and 
at once a long black swamp appeared where the moss had 
fallen, between them and their wicked foUower. The head 
was going at such a great speed, bumping over the ground, 
that it could not stop. It roUed into the swamp and disap- 
peared into the soft mud and was never seen again. 

The children then went home to wait for their 
father. It was a long journey, for they had run far. 
But their father never came. Months and months they 
waited, but he did not come, and they grew up to be 
great magicians and very powerful among their tribe. At 
last, by their magic power, they learned what had 
happened to their father. Their stepmother's body 
continued to follow him as he ran towards the west. It 
followed him for many days. Then by his magic power, 
which the vision of his dead wife had brought to him, 
he changed himself into the Sun, and went to live with 
his wife in the sky- country. But the old witch-woman 
also had magic power, and she changed herself into the 
Moon and followed him to the land of the stars. And 
there she stiU pursues him. And while he keeps ahead of 
her and she cannot catch him, night foUows day in all 




THE BULL RUSHED AT THE MOUNTAIN WITH ALL HIS FORCE 



THE CRUEL STEPMOTHER 159 

the world. But if she overtakes him she will kill him, 
and day will disappear and night shall reign for evermore 
upon the earth. And the Blackfeet of the plains pray that 
he will always keep in front in the race with his former 
witch-wife, so that there may be always Night and Day in 
succession in all the land. 



THE BOY WHO WAS SAVED BY THOUGHTS 

A POOR widow woman once lived near the sea in 
Eastern Canada. Her husband had been drowned 
- catching fish one stormy day far off the coast, 
and her little boy was now her only means of support. He 
had no brothers or sisters, and he and his mother, because 
they hved alone, were always good comrades. Although 
he was very young and small, he was very strong, and 
he could catch fish and game Hke a man. Every day he 
brought home food to his mother, and they were never in 
want. 

Now it happened that the Great Eagle who made the 
Winds in these parts became very angry because he was 
not given enough to eat. He went screaming through the 
land in search of food, but no food could he find. And he 
said, " If the people will not give me food, I wiU take care 
that they get no food for themselves, and when I grow very 
hungry I shall eat up all the Httle children in the land. For 
my young ones must have nourishment too." So he 
tossed the waters about with the wind of his great wings, 
and he bent the trees and flattened the com, and for days 

160 



THE BOY WHO WAS SAVED BY THOUGHTS i6i 

he made such a hurly-burly on the earth that the people 
stayed indoors, and they were afraid to come out in 
search of food. 

At last the boy and his mother became very hungry. 
And the boy said, " I must go and find food, for there is 
not a crumb left in the house. We cannot wait longer." 
And he said to his mother, " I know where a fat young 
beaver Hves in his house of reeds on the bank of the 
stream near the sea. I shall go and kill him, and his flesh 
will feed us for many days." His mother did not want 
him to make this hazardous journey, for the Great Eagle 
was still in the land. But he said to her, " You must think 
of me always when I am gone, and I will think of you, and 
while we keep each other in our memories I shall come to 
no harm." So, taking his long hunting knife, he set out 
for the beaver's home in his house of reeds on the bank of 
the stream near the sea. He reached the place without 
mishap and there he found Beaver fast asleep. He soon 
killed him and slimg him over his shoulder and started back 
to his mother's house. " A good fat load I have here," 
he said to himself, " and we shall now have many a good 
dinner of roast beaver-meat." 

But as he went along with his load on his back the Great 
Eagle spied him from a distance and swooped down upon 
him without warning. Before he could strike with his 

knife, the Eagle caught him by the shoulders and soared 

M 



i62 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

away, holding him in a mighty grip with the beaver still 
on his back. The boy tried to plunge his knife into the 
Eagle's breast, but the feathers were too thick and tough, 
and he was not strong enough to drive the knife through 
them. He could do nothing but make the best of his sorry 
plight. " Surely I can think of a way of escape," he said 
to himself, " and my mother's thoughts wiU be with me 
to help me." Soon the Eagle arrived at his home. It was 
built on a high cliff overlooking the sea, hundreds of feet 
above the beach, where even the sound of the surf rolling 
in from afar could not reach it. There were many young 
birds in the nest, all clamouring for food. Great Eagle 
threw the boy to the side of the nest and told him to stay 
there. And he said, " I shall first eat the beaver, and after 
he is all eaten up we shaU have a good fat meal from you.** 
Then he picked the beaver to pieces and fed part of it to 
his young ones. 

For some days the boy lay in terror in the nest, trying 
to think of a way of escape. Birds flew high over his head, 
and far out on the ocean he could see great ships going by. 
But no help came to him, and he thought that death would 
soon be upon him. And his mother sat at home waiting 
for him to return, but day after day passed and still he did 
not come. She thought he must surely be in great danger, 
or that perhaps he was already dead. One day, as she was 
weeping, thinking of her lost boy, an old woman came along. 




FOR SOME DAYS THE BOY LAY IN TERROR IN THE NEST . . . AND 
FAR OUT ON THE OCEAN HE COULD SEE GREAT SHIPS GOING BY 



THE BOY WHO WAS SAVED BY THOUGHTS 163 

" Why do you cry ? " she asked. And the weeping woman 
said, " My boy has been away for many days. I know that 
harm has come upon him. The men of my tribe have gone 
in search of him, and they will kill whatever holds him a 
prisoner, but I fear he will never come back ahve." And 
the old woman said, " Little good the men of your tribe 
can do you ! You must aid him with your thoughts, for 
material things are vain. I will help you, for I have been 
given great power by the Little People of the Hills." So 
the woman used her thoughts and her wishes to bring back 
her boy. 

That night the boy noticed that the beaver had all been 
eaten up and that not a morsel remained. He knew that 
unless he could save himself at once he would surely die on 
the morrow. The Great Eagle, he knew, would swoop down 
upon him and kill him with a blow of his powerful beak 
and claws. But when the boy slept, he saw his mother 
in his slumber. And she said to him, " To-morrow when 
Great Eagle goes from the nest, brace your knife, point 
upwards, against the rock. When he swoops down to kill 
you his breast will strike the knife, and he will be pierced 
to death. You are not strong enough to cut through his 
feathers with your knife, but he is powerful enough to 
destroy himself." The next morning when Great Eagle 
went out, the boy did as the vision of the night had told 
him. He braced his sharp hunting-knife, point upwards, 



i64 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

against the rock and sat still and waited. Then he heard 
the young eagles making a great noise and cr3dng loudly 
for their breakfast. He knew that his hour had come. 
Soon the Great Eagle, hearing the screams of his young 
ones, came flying back to the nest to kill the boy. He 
circled around above him with loud cries and then with great 
force swooped down upon him, hoping to kiU him with his 
beak and claws. But instead, he struck the blade braced 
upwards against the rock. The knife pierced far into his 
breast, and with a loud scream he rolled over dead into 
the nest. The boy then killed the young eagles, and he 
knew that now for a time he was safe. 

But he did not know how to get down from the Eagle's 
nest, for it jutted out like a shelf far over the beach, and 
behind it was a wall of rock around which he could not 
climb. He had no means of making a ladder, and his cries 
would not be heard upon the beach because of the constant 
roaring of the surf. He thought he would surely starve 
to death, and that night he cried himself to sleep. But 
in the night he again saw his mother in his slmnbers. And 
she said, " You are a fooHsh boy. Why do you not use 
the thoughts I send you ? To-morrow skin the eagle and 
crawl inside the skin. If the wide wings can hold the Eagle 
in the air they can likewise hold you. Drop off from the 
cliff and you wiU land safely on the beach." The next day 
the boy did as the vision of the night had told him. He 



THE BOY WHO WAS SAVED BY THOUGHTS 165 

carefully skinned the Great Eagle. Then he crawled inside 
the skin and thrust his arms through the skin just above 
the wings, so that his extended arms would hold the wings 
straight out beneath them. Then he prepared to drop down. 
But when he looked over the cHff, he was very frightened, 
for the sight made him dizzy. On the beach, men looked 
like flies, they were so far away. But he remembered the 
promise made to him in his slmnbers. So he pushed him- 
self from the cliff and dropped down. The wings of Great 
Eagle let him fall gently through the air and he landed 
safely and unhurt upon the beach. He crawled out of the 
skin and set out for his home. It was a long journey, for 
Great Eagle had carried him far away, but towards evening 
he reached his home safely, and his mother received him 
with great gladness. 

The boy began to boast of his adventure, and he told 
how he had killed Great Eagle and how he had dropped 
down unscathed from the cliff. He spoke of himself with 
great pride and of his strength and his shrewdness. But 
the old woman from the Land of the Little People, the 
fairies of the hills, who was still present with his mother, 
said, " Oh, vain boy, do not think so highly of yourself. 
Your strength is nothing ; your shrewdness is nothing. 
It was not these things that saved you, but it was the 
strength of our thoughts. These alone endure and succeed 
when all else fails. I have taught you the uselessness of 



i66 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

all material things, which in the end are but as ashes or 
as dust. Our thoughts alone can help us in the end, for 
they alone are eternal." And the boy listened and 
wondered at what the old woman from the Land of Little 
People had said, but he boasted of his strength no more. 



THE SONG-BIRD AND THE HEALING WATERS 

ONCE when the snow lay very deep on the ground 
and the days were grey with frost, there was 
great sorrow in an Indian village. A dreadful 
plague had come upon the place and had carried away many 
of the people. Neither old nor young were proof against 
its ravages, and the weak and the strong feU helpless before 
its power. The people tried every means to get rid of the 
plague, but they had no success. And they prayed to all 
their good spirits to help them, but no help came. In the 
tribe was a young warrior who had lost his parents and all 
his brothers and sisters because of the dreaded disease. 
Now his young wife fell sick, and he was in great sorrow, 
for he thought that she would soon foUow his parents into 
the Land of the Shadows. And so he went about in great 
fear, not knowing when the end would come. 

One day he met an old woman in the forest. " Why 
do you look so sorrowful ? " she asked him. " I am sad 
because my young wife is going to die," he answered ; 
" the plague will carry her off like the others." But the 
old woman said, "There is something that wiU save your 

167 



i68 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

wife from death. Far away in the East is a bird of 
sweet song which dwells close to the Healing Waters. Go 
until you find it. It will point you to the spring, the 
waters of which alone can heal." And the young man 
said, " I must find the HeaHng Waters. Wherever they 
may be upon the earth, I must find them." So he went 
home and said good-bye to his friends, and set out 
eastward on his quest. 

All the next day he searched eagerly for the Waters, 
listening always for the bird of the sweet song. But he 
found nothing. The snow lay deep in the forest and he 
moved along with difficulty. He met a rabbit in his path 
and he said, " Tell me where I shaU find the Healing Spring ? " 
But the rabbit scurried away over the snow and made no 
answer. Then he asked a bear, but he met with the same 
rebuff. Thus for many days and nights he wandered on, 
crossing rivers and climbing steep hills, but always without 
success. 

Then one day he emerged from the snow country and 
came to a land where the airs were warmer and where Httle 
streams were flowing. Suddenly he came upon the body of 
a dead man lying across his path. He stopped and buried 
the body, for he thought that it was not right to leave it 
lying bare upon the ground for the birds to peck at. That 
night as he went along in the moonlight he met a Fox in his 
path. "Hello," said the Fox. "What are you looking 



THE SONG-BIRD AND THE HEALING WATERS 169 

for so late at night in the forest ? " And he answered, " I 
am looking for the bird of the sweet song, who will show me 
the way to the Healing Waters." And the Fox said, " I 
am the spirit of the man you buried yesterday by the forest 
path, and in return for your kindness to me I shall do a 
kindness to you. You have always been good to the animals 
and the birds, and you have never killed them needlessly, 
nor when you did not require them for clothing or for food. 
And you have always been careful of the flowers and the 
trees, and you have often protected them from harm. So 
now they want to be good to you, and I am going to guide 
you. But first you must rest, for you are tired from your 
long journey." 

Then the young man lay down to sleep and the Fox 
stood guard beside him. As he slept he dreamed. And 
in his dream he saw his wife pale and thin and worn, and 
as he looked he heard her singing a song of wonderful melody. 
Then he heard a waterfall rippling near him and it said, 
" Seek me, O warrior, and when you find me your wife 
shall live, for I am the Healing Waters." In the morning 
the Fox led him but a short distance through the forest 
and on the branch of a tree he heard a bird singing a song 
of wonderful melody, just as he had heard in his dream of 
the night before. He knew now that this was the bird of 
the sweet song of which the old woman in the forest had 
spoken. Then, as he listened, he heard the sound of a 



170 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

waterfall rippling not far away. He searched for it, but 
he could not find it. And Fox said, " You must seek it ; 
you must not despair ; it wiU not come to you unless you 
search." So he searched again, and soon he thought he 
heard a voice speaking beneath his feet. " Release us," 
it called, " set us free and your wife and your people shall 
be saved." He seized a sharp stick and dug rapidly into 
the earth where he had heard the voice. He worked eagerly 
and quickly, and he had not dug far when the spring gushed 
forth and boiled upwards carrying to the world its healing 
power. And the young man knew that at last he had found 
the cure for his ills. He plunged into the spring and bathed 
himself in the water, and all his weariness left him and he 
was strong again. 

Then the young man moulded from the soft earth a 
large pot. He baked it in the fire until it was quite hard. 
" Now," said the Fox spirit, " I wiU leave you. Your 
kindness has been rewarded. You wiU need me no more, 
for you have found the Healing Waters." And he disap- 
peared as mysteriously as he had come. The young man 
filled his clay pot with the sparkling water and hastened 
back to his home, running through the forest with the speed 
of the wind, because of his renewed strength. 

When he reached his native village, the people met him 
with sad faces, for the plague was still raging and they told 
him that his young wife was about to pass to the Land of the 




THEN THE YOUNG MAN LAY DOWN TO SLEEP 
AND FOX STOOD GUARD BESIDE HIM 



THE SONG-BIRD AND THE HEALING WATERS 171 

Shadows. But he hurried to his home, and he forced some 
of the Heahng Waters between his wife's parched hps, and 
bathed her hands and her brow until she fell into a deep 
slumber. He watched by her side until she awoke, and 
when sleep left her she was well again. Then with his 
HeaHng Waters he cured aU the people in the village, and 
the cruel plague left them and there was no more sickness 
in the land. And since that time no plague has spread among 
his tribe. In this way the Mineral Springs, the places of 
Healing Waters, came upon the earth, bearing health and 
happiness wherever they rise, and accompanied always by 
the songs of birds. 



THE BOY WHO OVERCAME THE GIANTS 

ONCE long ago, before the white man came to 
Canada, an orphan boy was Hving alone with 
his uncle. He was not very happy, for he had 
to work very hard, and tasks more fitted for a man's shoulders 
than for a boy's were often placed upon him. When his 
parents died and left him without brother or sister, his uncle 
took him to his own home because there was no one else to 
take care of him. But he treated him very cruelly and 
often he wished to get rid of him. It mattered not how 
weU the boy did his work or how many fish and animals 
he caught, his uncle was never satisfied, and often he beat 
the boy harshly and with Httle cause. The boy would have 
run away but he did not know where to go, and he feared 
to wander alone in the dark forest. So he decided to endure 
his hardships as best he could. 

Now it happened that in a distant village near the sea 
there lived a Chief who was noted far and wide for his 
cruelty. He had a wicked temper, and he was known to 
have put many people to death for no reason whatsoever. 
More than aU else, he hated boastfulness and he had 

172 



THE BOY WHO OVERCAME THE GIANTS 173 

scanty patience with anyone who was vain of his own 
strength. He pledged himself always to humble the 
proud and to debase the haughty. The boy's uncle had 
heard of this wicked ruler, and he said, " Here is a chance 
for me to get rid of the boy. I will teU lies about him to 
the Chief." 

It chanced just at this time that three giants came into 
the Chief's territory. Where they came from, no man knew, 
but they dwelt in a large cave near the sea, and they caused 
great havoc and destruction in all the land. They ate up 
great stores of food, and aU the little children they could 
lay their hands on. The Chief used every means to get 
rid of the giants, but without success. Night after night 
his best warriors went to the cave by the ocean to seek out 
the giants, but not a man returned. A piece of birch bark 
bearing a picture of a warrior with an arrow in his heart, 
found the next day at the Chief's door, always told him of 
the warrior's fate. And the giants continued their cruel 
work, for no one could stop them. 

Soon aU the country was in great terror. The Chief 
wondered greatly what was to be done. At last he thought, 
** I will give my daughter to the man who can rid me of 
these pests." His daughter was his only child and she was 
very beautiful, and he knew that many suitors would now 
appear to seek her hand, for although the task was 
dangerous, the prize was worth while. When the wicked 



174 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

uncle in the distant village heard of it, he thought, " Now 
I can get rid of the boy, for I will tell the Chiei that the boy 
says he can kill the giants." So taking his nephew with 
him he went to the Chief's house and begged to see him. 
" Oh, Chief," he said, " I have a boy who boasts that before 
many days have passed he can free your land from the 
giants." And the Chief said, " Bring him to me." The 
man said, " Here he is." The Chief was surprised when 
he saw the small boy, and he said, " You have promised 
that you can rid my land of giants. Now we shall see if 
you can do it. If you succeed you may have my daughter. 
If you fail, you wiU die. If you escape from the giants, I 
wiU kiU you myself. I hate vain boasters, and they shall 
not live in my land." 

The boy went and sat by the ocean, and cried as hard 
as he could. He thought that he would surely die, for he 
was very smaU and he had no means of killing the giants. 
But as he sat there an old woman came along. She 
came quietly and quickly out of the grey mist of the sea. 
And she said, " Why are you crying ? " And the boy said, 
" I am crying because I am forced to attack the giants in 
the cave, and if I cannot kill them I shaU surely die," and 
he cried louder than before. But the old woman, who was 
the good fairy of the sea, said, " Take this bag and this knife 
and these three little stones that I wiU give you, and when 
you go to-night to the giants' cave, use them as I teU you 



THE BOY WHO OVERCAME THE GIANTS 175 

and all will be well." She gave him three small white stones 
and a small knife, and a bag like the bladder of a bear, and 
she taught him their use. Then she disappeared into the 
grey mist that hung low on the ocean and the boy never 
saw her again. 

The boy lay down on the sand and went to sleep. 
When he awoke, the moon was shining, and far along the 
coast in the bright light he could see an opening in the rocks 
which he knew was the entrance to the giants' cave. 
Taking his bag and his knife and the three little stones, he 
approached it cautiously with a trembhng heart. When 
he reached the mouth of the cave he could hear the giants 
snoring inside, all making different noises, louder than the 
roar of the sea. Then he remembered the old woman's 
instructions. He tied the bag inside his coat so that the 
mouth of it was close to his chin. Then he took one of the 
stones from his pocket. At once it grew to immense size, 
so heavy that the boy could scarcely hold it. He threw 
it at the biggest giant with great force, and it hit him 
squarely on the head. The giant sat up staring wildly and 
rubbing his brow. He kicked his younger brother, who was 
lying beside him, and said in great anger, " Why did you 
strike me ? " " I did not strike you," said his brother. 
" You struck me on the head while I slept," said the giant, 
" and if you do it again I will kill you." Then they went 
to sleep again. 



176 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

When the boy heard them snoring loudly again, he took 
a second stone from his pocket. At once it grew great 
in size and the boy hurled it with great force at the 
biggest giant. Again the giant sat up staring wildly and 
rubbing his head. But this time he did not speak. He 
grasped his axe, which was lying beside him, and kiUed his 
brother with a blow. Then he went to sleep again. When 
the boy heard him snoring, he took the third stone from 
his pocket. At once it grew to great size and weight, and 
he hurled it with aU his force at the giant. Again the giant 
sat up with great staring eyes, rubbing the lump on his 
head. He was now in a great rage. " My brothers have 
plotted to kiU me," he yelled, and seizing his axe he killed 
his remaining brother with a blow. Then he went to sleep, 
and the boy sUpped from the cave, first gathering up the 
three stones, which were now of their usual small size. 

The next morning when the giant went to get water 
from the stream, the boy hid in the trees and began to cry 
loudly. The giant soon discovered him and asked, "Why 
are you crying ? " "I have lost my way," said the boy, 
" my parents have gone and left me. Please take me into 
your service, for I would like to work for such a kind 
handsome man, and I can do many things." The giant 
was flattered by what the boy said, and although he hked 
to eat httle children, he thought, " Now that I am alone, 
I ought to have a companion, so I wiU spare the boy's life 



THE BOY WHO OVERCAME THE GLA.NTS 177 

and make him my servant." And he took the boy back to 
his cave, and said, " Cook my dinner before I come 
home. Make some good stew, for I shall be very hungry." 
When the giant went into the forest the boy prepared 
the evening meal. He cut up a great store of deer meat 
and put it in a large pot bigger than a hogshead, and made 
a good meat stew. When the giant came home in the evening 
he was very hungry, and he was well pleased to see the big 
pot filled with his favourite food. He seated himself on 
one side of the pot, and the boy seated himself on the other 
side, and they dipped their spoons into the big dish. And 
the boy said, " We must eat it all up so that I can clean 
the pot well and ready for the com mush we will have for 
breakfast." The stew was very hot, and to cool it before 
he ate it the giant blew his breath on what he dipped out. 
But the boy poured his own share into the bag under his 
coat, and said, " Why can't you eat hot food — a big man 
like you ? In my country men never stop to cool their 
stew with their breath." Now the giant could not see very 
well, for his eyesight was not very good, and the cave was 
dark, and he did not notice the boy putting the stew in the 
bag so quickly. He thought the boy was eating it. And 
he was shamed by the boy's taunts because he was so much 
larger than the boy, so he ate up the hot stew at once in 
great gulps and burned his throat badly. But he was too 
proud to stop or to complain. 

N 



178 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

When they had eaten half the potful, the giant said, " I 
am fuU. I think I have had enough/' " No, indeed," said 
the boy, *' you must show that you Hke my cooking. In 
my country men eat much more than that," and he kept 
on eating. The giant was not to be outdone by a boy, so he 
feU to eating again, and they did not stop until they had 
consumed the whole potful of stew. But the boy had poured 
his share into the bag and when they had finished he was 
swelled out to an immense size. The giant could scarcely 
move, he had eaten so much, and he said, " I have eaten 
too much ; I feel very full, and I have a great pain in my 
beUy." And the boy said, " I do not feel very comfortable 
myself, but I have a way to cure pains." So sajdng he took 
his Httle knife and thrust it gently into the side of the bag 
and the stew oozed out and he was soon back to his normal 
size. The giant wondered greatly at the sight, but the boy 
said, "It is a way they have in my country after they have 
had a great feast." " Does the knife not hurt ? " asked 
the giant. " No, indeed," said the boy, " it brings great 
relief." " My throat is very sore," said the giant, for the 
hot stew had burned him. " You wiU soon feel better," 
said the boy, " if you will do as I have done." The giant 
hesitated to do this, but soon he felt so uncomfortable that 
he could bear it no longer. He saw that the boy was feeHng 
quite well. So he took his long knife and plunged it into 
his stomach. " Strike hard," said the boy, "or it will do 



•Pf^V"'"**^ 




"strike hard." said the BOY- "OR IT WILL DO YOU NO GOOD' 



THE BOY WHO OVERCAME THE GIANTS 179 

you no good." The giant plunged the knife into the hilt, 
and in an instant he fell dead. 

Then the boy took the stones and the bag and the knife 
which the Woman of the Mist had given him and went and 
told the Chief what he had .done. The Chief sent his 
messengers to the cave to make sure that the boy spoke 
the truth. Sure enough, they found the three giants lying 
dead. When they told the Chief what they had seen, he 
said to the boy, " You may have my daughter as your wife." 
But the boy said, " I do not want your daughter. She is 
too old and fat. I want only traps to catch fish and game.** 
So the Chief gave the boy many good traps, and he went 
into a far country to hunt game, and there he lived happily 
by himself. And his wicked uncle never saw him again. 
But the land was troubled no more by giants, because of the 
boy's great deeds. 



THE YOUTH AND THE DOG-DANCE 

ONCE long ago, when the Indians dwelt in the 
country in the north-west, a youth went far 
away from his native village to catch birds. His 
people lived near a lake where only small birds nested, and 
as he wanted large and bright-coloured feathers for his arrows 
and his bonnet he had to go far into the forest, where larger 
birds of brilliant plumage lived. When he reached the 
Land of Many Feathers far in the north country, he dug 
a pit on the top of a high hill. Then he covered the pit 
with poles and over the poles he spread grass and leaves 
so that the place looked hke the earth around it. He put 
meat and com on the grass, and tied the food to the poles 
so that the birds could not carry it away. Then he climbed 
down into the pit and waited for the birds to come, when 
he could reach up and catch them by the feet and kill them. 
All day long and far into the night the youth waited 
for birds, but no birds came. Towards morning he heard 
a distant sound Hke that of a partridge drumming. But 
the sound did not come nearer. The next night, as the youth 
watched and waited in the pit, he heard the same sound, 

180 



THE YOUTH AND THE DOG-DANCE i8i 

and he said, " I will see where the noise comes from and I 
will discover the cause, for it is not a partridge, and it is 
very strange." So he chmbed out of the pit and went in 
the direction of the sound. He walked along rapidly 
through the forest until he came at dawn to the shore of 
a large lake. The drumming came from somewhere in the 
lake, but as he stood hstening to it, the sound suddenly 
stopped. The next night the youth heard the drumming 
louder than before. Again he went to the lake. The sound 
was again distinct as it rose from the water, and when he 
looked he saw great numbers of birds and animals swimming 
in the lake in the moonlight. But there was no explanation 
of the strange sound. As he sat watching the animals and 
birds, he prayed to his guardian spirit to teU him the cause 
of the drumming. Soon an old man came along. He 
was old and bent and wrinkled, but his eyes were kind. The 
youth gave him some tobacco and they sat down together 
on the edge of the lake and watched the swimmers in the 
dim Ught, and smoked their pipes. 

" What are you doing here ? " asked the old man. " I 
am trjdng to learn the cause of the strange drumming," 
said the youth. " You do well indeed to seek it," said the 
old man, " and to seek to know the cause of all things. Only 
in that way will you be great and wise. But remember 
there are some things the cause of which you can never 
find." " Where have you come from ? " said the boy. 



i82 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

" Oh," said the man, " I hved once upon a time like you 
in the Country of Fancy where great Dreams dweU, and 
indeed I live there still, but your dreams are aU of the future 
while mine are of the past. But some day you too wiU 
change and your thoughts wiU be Hke mine." " TeU me the 
cause of the drumming," said the boy. And the old man 
said, " Take this wand that I wiU give you and wave it before 
you go to sleep, and maybe you will see strange things." 
Then he gave the boy a wand and disappeared into the forest 
and the boy never saw him again. The boy waved the 
wand and feU asleep on the sand as the old man had told 
him. When he awoke he found himself in a large room in 
the midst of many people. Some of them were dancing 
gracefully, and some sat around and talked. They wore 
wonderful robes of skins and feathers, of many different 
colours. The boy wished he could get such feathers for 
his own clothes and his bonnet. But as he looked at the 
people he was suddenly aware that they were none other 
than the animals and birds he had seen for two nights 
swimming in the lake in the moonhght. They were now 
changed into human form, through some strange and 
miraculous power. They were very kind to the youth and 
treated him with great courtesy. 

At last the dancing ceased and the talking stopped, and 
one who seemed to be the Chief stood up at the end of the 
room and said, " Oh, young stranger, the Great Spirit has 



mmtmm^immKmiim^mmggm 




AND THEY SAT DOWN TOGETHER ON THE EDGE OF THE LAKE 



THE YOUTH AND THE DOG-DANCE 183 

heard your prayers, and because of your magic wand we 
have been sent to you in these shapes. The creatures you 
see here are the animals and birds of the world. I am the 
Dog, whom the Great Spirit loves well. I have much power, 
and my power I shall give to you, and I shall always protect 
you and guard you. And even if you should treat me with 
cruelty I shall never be unfaithful to you, nor shall I ever 
be unkind. But you must take this Dance home with you 
and teach it to your people and they must celebrate the 
Dance once a year." Then he taught the youth the secrets 
of their Dance. 

When the youth had learned the Dance, the Chief turned 
to his companions and said, " My comrades and brothers, 
I have taught the young stranger the secrets of the Dance. 
I have given him my own power. Will you not have pity 
on a creature from earth and give him some of the power 
of which you too are possessed ? " 

For a long time no one spoke, but at last Owl arose and 
said, " I too will help him. I have power to see far in the 
darkness, and to hunt by night. When he goes out at night 
I will be near him and he shall see a great distance. I 
give him these feathers to fasten in his hair." And the 
Owl gave him a bunch of feathers, which the youth tied to 
his head. 

Then Buffalo came forward and said, " I too will help 
him. I will give him my endurance and my strength, and 



i84 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

my power to trample my enemies underfoot. And I give 
him this belt of tanned buffalo-hide to wear when he goes 
to war." And he gave the youth a very wondrous belt to 
fasten around his waist. 

The animals and birds, one after the other, gave him 
gladly of their power. Porcupine gave him quiUs with 
which to decorate his leather belt and his bonnet, and he 
said, " I too wiU aid you, and when you make war I wiU 
be near you. I can make my enemies as weak as children, 
and they always flee when I approach, for they fear the 
shooting of my quiUs. When you meet your foes you wiU 
always overcome them, for I give you power as it was given 
to me." 

And Bear said, " I will give you my toughness and my 
strength, and a strip of fur for your leather belt and your 
coat. And when you are in danger, I will not be far away." 

Then Deer said, " I give you my swiftness so that you 
may be fleet of foot. And when you pursue your enemies 
you wiU always overtake them, and should you flee from 
them, you wiU always out-run them in the race." 

Then the birds spoke again, and Crane said, " I give 
you a bone from my wing to make a war-whistle to frighten 
your enemies away or to summon your people to your 
assistance when you need them. And I give you my wings 
for your head-dress." 

The giant Eagle then spoke and said, " Oh, youth, I will 



THE YOUTH AND THE DOG-DANCE 185 

be with you wherever you go, and I will give you my strength 
and my power in war. And even as I do, you will always 
see your enemies from afar, and you can always escape them 
if you so desire." And he gave him a large bunch of won- 
derful eagle feathers to tie in his hair as a token of his 
fidehty. 

And finally, Wild-Cat said, " I give you my power to 
crawl stealthily through the grass and the underbrush and 
to spring unexpectedly on your foes and take them unawares. 
And I give you too my power of hiding from my enemies." 
And he gave him strips of his fur to decorate his clothing 
in token of his friendship. 

From all the animals and the birds the youth received 
power and gifts. Then he waved his magic wand and lay 
down to sleep. When he awoke, he found himself on the 
shore of the lake, and far in the east the dawn was 
breaking. But he could see farther than he had ever seen 
before, and away in the distance he could make out blue 
hills and smoke rising from far-off villages. And he 
knew that strange power was upon him. But not a 
sound came from the lake, and the drumming had for ever 
ended. 

The youth took his magic wand and his gifts and set 
out for his home. And he told his people what had happened 
and he taught them the secrets of the. Dance which was to 
make them strong and victorious in war. And among his 



i86 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

people it became a great ceremony and was practised for 
long ages, and was known as the Dog-Dance. And since 
that time, the animals and birds have been friends to the 
Indians, and the Indians have acquired much of their 
cunning and skill and power. And ever after the night 
of moonlight by the lake when the youth with the magic 
wand received the strange gifts, the Indians have decorated 
their war clothes with fur and quills and feathers from 
the animals and the birds. And in the far north country, 
the Dog-Dance is stiU held at intervals out of gratitude for 
the gifts, for the Indians do not forget the promise of 
long ago. 



SPARROW'S SEARCH FOR THE RAIN 

LONG ago, in a village near the sea, many Indian 
people were living. Among them was a very 
-^ nice old warrior who had been given great power 
at his birth, and who, therefore, could do many wonderful 
deeds. There was nothing that was beyond his under- 
standing, for he knew all things. His wife had long been 
dead, but he had one daughter. She was very beautiful 
and gentle, and she was as nearly perfect as any woman 
could be. She took no interest in frivolous things and 
she hved a very quiet life, but all the people Hked her 
well, and she was always welcome wherever she went. 
Her old father was very proud of her, and he said 
boastfully, " She has inherited much of my wisdom, and 
some day she will marry a great man.'* But the girl on 
her part had Httle thought of marriage or of men, for she 
said they had small minds, and she would rather live 
alone than listen always to their boastfulness and their 
foohsh chatter. 

Soon the daughter's fame spread far and wide through 
the sea-coast villages, and many suitors came seeking for 

187 



i88 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

her hand. But her father said, " I have nothing to say. 
She wiU make her own choice. She must please herself. 
For to-day children please themselves and not their parents." 
And she said, " I wiU marry only some one who can amuse 
me and interest me and keep me company. I have scant 
hking for dull people." One day Loon came to see her. He 
was very good looking although he was somewhat taU and 
skinny, and his neck was a bit longer and more scrawny 
than ordinary, but he wore good clothes and he had great 
skiU as a fisherman. He came because he thought he was 
very handsome, and he believed that his good looks would 
win the maiden. But she had no love for Loon, for he had 
not a word to say. When she talked to him he only stared, 
and at last he burst out into loud and foolish laughter. Then 
the maiden said, " You have a smaU mind like the others," 
and in disgust she withdrew from his presence. 

Then Fox came in an effort to win the maiden as his 
wife. And for a whole day he cut capers, and chased his 
tail round and round in a circle, trying to amuse the serious 
girl. But he did not succeed very well, and like Loon he 
departed in despair. And many others came, but they met 
the same fate, and at last the girl decided to see no more 
of them, but to live alone with her father. The young men 
of the village were aU very angry because the girl had spoken 
of them aU so scornfully, and often they talked among 
themselves of her proud and haughty air. " She calls us 



SPARROW'S SEARCH FOR THE RAIN 189 

Scattered-Brains," said one. " She says we have small 
minds," said another. " She must pay for these insults," 
said a third. So they vowed that they would somehow 
break her proud spirit and bring her sorrow because of her 
ideas and her decision to stay single all her Hfe. One of 
the great men of the village was Whirlwind. He could make 
himself invisible, and he was often guilty of many wicked 
pranks. So the young men went to him and asked his aid 
in humbling the pride of the haughty maiden. As they 
were talking to him, they saw the girl approaching not far 
off. And quite unawares, Whirlwind rushed towards her 
and knocked her down in the mud and tore her hat from 
her head and swept it into the sea. The young men looked 
on at her plight and they all laughed loudly, and the girl 
was very much ashamed. She went back home and told 
her father what had happened, and showed him her soiled 
clothes and her blown hair falling about her face. Her 
father was very angry, and he said, " Whirlwind must pay 
for this. He shall be banished at once." 

Then her father went to the Chief and made complaint 
against Whirlwind, and the Chief decreed that Whirlwind 
must leave the village forthwith. He did not consider very 
carefully what the result of this decree might be, and he 
acted hastily and without thought, for he feared to differ 
from the wise man. So Whirlwind prepared to leave the 
place. Now his best friend was Rain. Rain had been 



igo CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

bom without eyes. He was black blind, and Whirlwind 
always had to lead him along wherever he wished to go. 
So Rain said, *' If you are leaving the village, I want to 
leave it too, for I cannot live here without you. I wiU be 
helpless if I have no one to lead me." So the two set out 
together. Whirlwind leading old Rain along by his side. 
Where they went no man knew, for they had told nobody 
of their destination. They were gone for many months 
before the people missed them very much. Then their 
absence began to be felt in aU the land, for there was no 
wind and there was no rain. 

At last the Chief summoned a council, and the decree 
of banishment against Whirlwind was revoked. The people 
decided to send messengers to the two wandering ones to 
teU them what had happened and to bring them back. So 
they first sent Fox out on the quest. Fox went through 
the land for many weeks, running as fast as he could over 
many roads, in and out among marshy lake shores and over 
high wooded mountains. He searched every cave and crevice, 
but he had no success. Not a leaf or a blade of grass 
was stirring, and the country was aU parched and the grass 
was withered brown and the streams were aU getting dry. 
At last, after a fruitless search, he came home and shamefully 
confessed that his quest had failed. 

Then the people called on Bear to continue the search. 
And Bear went lumbering over the earth, sniffing the air, 



SPARROW'S SEARCH FOR THE RAIN 191 

and turning over logs and great rocks with his powerful 
shoulders, and venturing into deep caverns. And he made 
many inquiries, and he asked the Mountain Ash, " Where 
is Whirlwind ? " But Mountain Ash said, " I do not know. 
I have not seen him for many months." And he asked 
the Red Fir, and the Pine, and the Aspen, which always 
sees Whirlwind first, but they were all ignorant of his where- 
abouts. So Bear came home and said, " Not a trace of 
either of them have I found." 

The Chief was very angry because of the failure of Fox 
and Bear, but the wise man said, " The animals are useless 
in a quest like this. Let us try the birds. They often 
succeed where the animals fail." And the Chief agreed, 
for the land was in great distress. Many fishing-boats lay 
silent on the sea near the coast unable to move because 
Whirlwind was away, and the wells and streams were all 
dry because Rain was absent, and the grass and the flowers 
were withering to decay. So they called the birds to their 
aid. The great Crane searched in the shallows and among 
the reeds, thrusting his long neck into deep places, and Crow 
looked among the hills, and Kingfisher flew far out to sea, 
but they all came back and said, " We, too, have failed. 
The wandering ones are nowhere on the land or upon the 
sea." Then little Sparrow took up the search. Before 
he set out, he plucked from his breast a small down- 
feather and fastened it to a stick no bigger than a wisp of 



192 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

hay. He held the stick in his biU and flew off. For many 
days he went towards the south-land, aU the time watching 
the feather hanging to the stick in his biU. But it hung 
there motionless. One day, after he had travelled a great 
distance, he saw the down-feather moving very gently, and 
he knew that Whirlwind must be not far away. He went 
in the direction from which the feather was blowing. Soon 
he saw beneath him soft green grass and wonderful flowers 
of varied colours, and trees with green leaves and many 
ripphng streams of running water. And he said to himself, 
" At last I have found the wanderers." He foUowed a little 
stream for some distance until it ended in a cave in the hiUs. 
In front of the cave many flowers were blooming and the 
grass was soft and green, and the tail grasses were nodding 
their heads very gently. He knew that those he was seeking 
were inside, and he entered the cave very quietly. Just 
beyond the door a fire was smouldering and near it lay Rain 
and Whirlwind both fast asleep. Sparrow tried to wake 
them with his bill and his cries, but they were sleeping too 
soundly. Then he took a coal from the fire and put it on 
Rain's back, but it spluttered and fizzled and soon went 
out. He tried another, but the same thing happened. Then 
he took a third coal, and this time Rain woke up. He was 
much surprised to hear a stranger in the cave, but he could 
not see him because he was blind. So he woke up Whirlwind 
to protect him. 



SPARROW'S SEARCH FOR THE RAIN 193 

Then Sparrow told them of the great trouble in the north 
country and of the great hardship and sorrow their absence 
had brought to the people, and of how sadly they had been 
missed and of the decision of the council to call them back. 
And \Vhirhvind said, " We shall return to-morrow if we are 
so badly needed. You may go back and tell your people 
that we are coming. We shall be there the day after you 
arrive." So Sparrow, feehng very proud of his success, 
flew back home. But when he arrived after many days, 
he went first to his own people to tell them the good news. 
And the Sparrow-people all gathered together and held a 
feast of celebration, and they twittered and danced and 
made a great hub-bub in their excitement because Rain 
was coming back on the morrow. Then Sparrow went to 
the Chief and said, " Oh, Chief, I have found Rain and 
Whirlwind and to-morrow they will be here,'' and he told 
the story of his flight to the south and of his discovery. And 
the Chief said, " Because of your success, you wiU never 
be hunted for game or killed for food." 

The next morning the two travellers who had been so 

long away came back to the land. WTiirlwind came first 

and great clouds of dust foretold his coming, and the sea 

dashed high against the rocks, and the trees shrieked and 

tossed their heads, all dancing gaily because of his return. 

When Whirlwind had passed by. Rain came along following 

close, because of his bhndness. For several days Rain stayed 

o 



194 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

with the people and the flowers bloomed and the grass was 
green again and the wells and streams were no longer dry. 
And since that time Wind and Rain have never long been 
absent from the Atlantic Coast. And to this day the 
Sparrow-people know when Rain is coming, and to signal 
his approach they gather together and twitter and hop along 
and make a great hub-hub, just as they did when their 
ancestor found him by means of his down- feather in the 
olden days. But the Indians have been true to the Chief's 
promise, and they will not hunt Sparrows for game nor kiU 
them for food or for their feathers. For they remember 
that of all the birds it was old Sparrow who long ago searched 
successfully for the Rain. 



THE BOY IN THE LAND OF SHADOWS 

TWO orphan children, a boy and a girl, lived alone 
near the mountains. Their parents had long been 
dead and the children were left to look after 
themselves without any kindred upon the earth. The boy 
hunted all day long and provided much food, and the girl 
kept the house in order and did the cooking. They had 
a very deep love for each other and as they grew up they 
said, " We shall never leave each other. We shall always 
stay here together." But one year it happened that in the 
early spring-time it was very cold. The snow lingered on 
the plains and the ice moved slowly from the rivers and 
chill winds were always blowing and grey vapours hovered 
over all the land. And there was very little food to be had, 
for the animals hid in their warm winter dens and the wild- 
geese and ducks were still far south. And in this cruel period 
of bad weather the Httle girl sickened and died. Her brother 
worked hard to provide her with nourishing food and he 
gathered all the medicine roots he thought could bring her 
relief, but it was all to no purpose. And despite all 
his efforts, one evening in the twihght his sister went 

195 



196 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

away to the West, leaving him alone behind upon the 
earth. 

The boy was heart-broken because of his sister's death. 
And when the late spring came and the days grew warm 
and food was plentiful again, he said, " She must be some- 
where in the West, for they say that our people do not really 
die. I will go and search for her, and perhaps I can find 
her and bring her back." So one morning he set out on his 
strange quest. He journeyed many days westward towards 
the Great Water, killing game for food as he went, and 
sleeping at night under the stars. He met many strange 
people, but he did not tell them the purpose of his travels. 
At last he came to the shore of the Great Water, and he 
sat looking towards the sunset wondering what next to do. 
In the evening an old man came along. " What are you 
doing here ? " asked the man. " I am looking for my sister," 
said the boy ; " some time ago she sickened and died and 
I am lonely without her, and I want to find her and bring 
her back." And the man said, " Some time ago she whom 
you seek passed this way. If you wish to find her you must 
undertake a dangerous journey." The boy answered that 
he would gladly risk any dangers to find his sister, and the 
old man said, " I wiU help you. Your sister has gone to 
the Land of Shadows far away in the Country of Silence 
which Hes out yonder in the Island of the Blest. To reach 
the Island you must sail far into the West, but I warn you 



THE BOY IN THE LAND OF SHADOWS 197 

that it is a perilous journey, for the crossing is always 
rough and your boat will be tossed by tempests. But 
you will be well repaid for your trouble, for in that land 
nobody is ever hungry or tired ; there is no death and 
no sorrow ; there are no tears, and no one ever grows 
old/' 

Then the old man gave the boy a large pipe and some 
tobacco and said, " This will help you in your need." And 
he brought him to where a small canoe lay dry upon the 
beach. It was a wonderful canoe, the most beautiful the 
boy had ever seen. It was cut from a single white stone 
and it sparkled in the red twilight Hke a poHshed jewel. 
And the old man said, " This canoe wiU weather all storms. 
But see that you handle it carefuUy, and when you come 
back see that you leave it in the cove where you found 
it." 

Soon afterwards, the boy set out on his journey. The 
moon was full and the night was cold with stars. He sailed 
into the West over a rough and angry sea, but he was in no 
danger, for his canoe rode easily on the waters. All around 
him he saw in the moonlight many other canoes going in 
the same direction and all white and shining like his own. 
But no one seemed to be guiding them, and although he 
looked long at them not a person could he make out. He 
wondered if the canoes were drifting unoccupied, for when 
he caUed to them there was no answer. Sometimes a canoe 



198 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

upset in the tossing sea and the waves rose over it and it 
was seen no more, and the boy often thought he heard 
an anguished cry. For several days he sailed on to the 
West, and all the time other canoes were not far away, 
and all the time some of them were dropping from sight 
beneath the surging waters, but he saw no people in 
them. 

At last, after a long journey, the sea grew calm and the 
air was sweet and warm. There was no trace of the storm, 
for the waves were quiet and the sky was as clear as crystal. 
He saw that he was near the Island of the Blest of which 
the old man had spoken, for it was now plain to his view, 
as it rose above the ocean, topped with green grass and 
trees, and a snow-white beach. Soon he reached the shore 
and drew up his canoe. As he turned away he came upon 
a skeleton lying fiat upon the sand. He stopped to look 
at it, and as he did so, the skeleton sat up and said in great 
surprise, " You should not be here. Why have you come ? " 
And the boy said, " I seek my sister. In the early spring- 
time she sickened and died, and I am going to the Land 
of Shadows in the Country of Silence in search of her." 
" You must go far inland," said the skeleton, " and the 
way is hard to find for such as you." The boy asked for 
guidance and the skeleton said, " Let me smoke and I will 
help you." The boy gave him the pipe and the tobacco 
he had received from the old man, and he laughed when 




THEN THE OLD MAN GAVE THE BOY A LARGE PIPE AND SOME TOBACCO 



THE BOY IN THE LAND OF SHADOWS 199 

he saw his strange companion with the pipe between his 
teeth. The skeleton smoked for some time and at last, as 
the smoke rose from his pipe, it changed to a flock of httle 
white birds, which flew about Hke doves. The boy looked 
on in wonder, and the skeleton said, ** These birds will guide 
you. Follow them." Then he gave back the pipe and 
stretched out again flat upon the sand, and the boy could 
not rouse him from his sleep. 

The boy followed the little white birds as he had been 
told. He went along through a land of great beauty where 
flowers were blooming and countless birds were singing. 
Not a person did he meet on the way. The place was 
deserted except for the song-birds and the flowers. He 
passed through the Country of Silence, and came to a 
mysterious land where no one dwelt. But although he 
saw no one he heard many voices and he could not tell whence 
they came. They seemed to be all around him. At last 
the birds stopped at the entrance to a great garden, and 
flew around his head in a circle. They would go no further 
and they aHghted on a tree close by, all except one, which 
perched on the boy's shoulder. The lad knew that here 
at last was the Land of Shadows. 

When he entered the garden he heard again many low 
voices. But he saw no one. He saw only many shadows 
of people on the grass, but he could not see from what the 
shadows came. He wondered greatly at the strange and 



200 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

unusual sight, for back in his homeland in that time the 
sunlight made no shadows. He Hstened again to the voices 
and he knew now that the shadows were speaking. He 
wandered about for some time marvelling greatly at the 
strange place with its weird unearthly beauty. At last he 
heard a voice which he knew to be his sister's. It was soft 
and sweet, just as he had known it when they were together 
on the earth, and it had not changed since she left him. 
He went to the shadow from which the voice came, and 
throwing himself on the grass beside it, he said, " I have 
long sought you, my sister. I have come to take you home. 
Let me see you as you were when we dwelt together." But 
his sister said, " You have done wisely to keep me in your 
memory, and to seek to find me. But here we cannot appear 
to the people of earth except as shadows. I cannot go back 
with you, for it is now too late. I have eaten of the food 
of this land ; if you had come before I had eaten, perhaps 
you could have taken me away. Who knows ? But my 
heart and my voice are unchanged, and I stiU remember 
my dear ones, and with unaltered love I still watch my old 
home. And although I cannot go to you, you can some day 
come to me. First you must finish your work on earth. 
Go back to your home in the Earth Country. You will 
become a great Chief among your people. Rule wisely and 
justly and well, and give freely of your food to the poor among 
the Indians who have not as much as you have. And when 



THE BOY IN THE LAND OF SHADOWS 201 

your work on earth is done you shall come to me in this 
Land of Shadows beyond the Country of Silence, and we 
shall be together again and our youth and strength and 
beauty will never leave us." 

And the boy, wondering greatly and in deep sorrow, 
said, *' Let me stay with you now." But his sister said, 
*' That cannot be." Then she said, " I will give you a 
Shadow, which you must keep with you as your guardian 
spirit. And while you have it with you, no harm can come 
to you, for it will be present only in the Light, and where 
there is Light there can be no wickedness. But when it 
disappears you must be on your guard against doing evil, 
for then there will be darkness, and darkness may lead you 
to wrong," 

So the boy took the Shadow, and said good-bye for a 
season and set out on his homeward journey. The little 
white birds, which had waited for him in the trees, guided 
him back to the beach. His canoe was still there, but the 
skeleton-man had gone and there was not a trace of him 
to be found upon the sand. And the Island of the Blest 
was silent except for the songs of the birds and the ripple 
of the Httle streams. The boy embarked in his canoe and 
sailed towards the east, and as he pushed off from the beach 
the little white birds left him and disappeared in the air. 
The sea was now calm and there was no storm, as there had 
been on his outward journey. Soon he reached the shore 



202 CANADIAN FAIRY TALES 

on the other side. He left his canoe in the cove as the 
old man had told him, and in a few days he arrived at 
his home, stiU bearing the Shadow from the Country of 
Silence. 

He worked hard for many years but he did no evil, and 
in the end he became a great Chief and did much good for 
his people. He ruled wisely and justly and well, as his sister 
had commanded him. Then one day, when he was old and 
his work was done, he disappeared, and his people knew that 
he had gone to join his sister in the Land of Shadows in 
the Country of Silence far away somewhere in the West. 
But he left behind him the Shadow his sister had given him ; 
and while there is Light the Indians stiU have their Shadow 
and no harm can come to them, for where there is Light there 
can be no evil. 

But always in the late autumn the Shadows of the Indian 
brother and sister in the Country of Silence are lonely for 
their former life. And they think of their living friends 
and of the places of their youth, and they wish once more 
to foUow the hunt, for they know that the hunter's moon 
is shining. And when their memory dwells with longing 
on their earlier days, their spirits are allowed to come back 
to earth for a brief seaison from the Land of Shadows. Then 
the winds are silent and the days are very still, and the smoke 
of their camp fires appears Hke haze upon the air. And men 
caU this season Indian Summer, but it is reaUy but a 



THE BOY IN THE LAND OF SHADOWS 203 

Shadow of the golden summer that has gone. And it always 
is a reminder to the Indians that in the Land of Shadows, 
far away in the Country of Silence in the West, there are no 
dead. 



THE END 



3i|.77-'2 



